Life as a Career
by cottongirl
Summary: "60 seconds. That's all I have to wait before I can finally do what I've been trained for. This is it..." The story of Clove in her journey to and in The Hunger Games as well as her relationship with Cato. Possible alternate ending, still undecided...Please give it a shot! The first couple of chapters are a little choppy.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey ya'll! This is my first time writing any kind of story so please be patient with the updates. I'll try my best to do it every week but might get delayed with school. Thanks! Hope ya'll enjoy! *Note* I do not own The Hunger Games.**

**Chapter 1**

My Name is Clove Soto. I'm 17 years old. This is The 74th Annual Hunger Games through the eyes of a Career.

***11 Years before***

"Clove!" I hear my mother yell my name up the stairs of our house. I groan and roll out of bed; this is the first day of my training.

I live in district 2, a Career district. The Career districts are districts one, two and four.

All kids in, District 2, starting at age six are trained to become fierce and deadly fighters so that we may volunteer at our reaping when we turn 18.

Being a tribute from a Career district isn't like it is in the outer districts. Out there they just go because they have to, there are never any volunteers.

In the inner districts there is often a fight over who gets to go compete in the games, because we want to bring fame and honor to our family and district.

Our coaches usually decide who will be reaped and who will have the option to volunteer.

"Clove!" my mother yells again. "I'm coming!" I respond. Surprisingly, I'm actually excited to get to start training, even though I still have 6 years till I'm eligible to be reaped and another ten to twelve years before I can volunteer.

We pull up to the training center in our car. My mother gives me a good luck hug and kiss as I'm on my way inside. When I get inside, I'm overwhelmed. The room and all the kids are so much bigger than me.

I quickly find the kids from my year and go over to join them in watching all the older kids throw spears, shoot arrows at targets with bows and spear and behead dummies with very deadly looking swords.

I notice one girl who looks to be about 14 throwing all different kinds of knives at dummies and hitting either the head or bulls eye on the chest every time. The way she draws her arm back and flicks her wrist with every release captivates me.

She makes it looks so fluid and graceful. It was that very moment that I decided I wanted to throw knives as my skill.

***11 Years later***

I'm resting after one hour of throwing while I watch my best friend Cato impale dummies on the floor. Cato is 18, 6'3", and all muscle. He has dirty blonde hair and cobalt blue eyes.

I first met him when I was 8. I was throwing knives and not doing too well. He had come up behind me and helped me correct my throwing angle. After that we basically just started training together and hanging out after training.

He starts to slow down a little and I can tell that he's tired. "Want some water?" I ask. "Sure, can you toss me a bottle?" he responds. I walk over to the cooler and grab a bottle of water, then turn around to toss it to him but notice that he's facing the other way.

I decide to put my knife throwing skills into action. I take aim at his head with the water bottle, draw my wrist back to my ear and in one fluid motion, I flick my wrist and throw the bottle at his head.

He jerks forward as it hits him. "What was that for?" he yells at me. "You should've been paying attention." I laugh. He gives me a glare and I give him a stupidly sweet smile back. It's then that he gives me the smallest of smiles and starts to laugh with me.

As we're both laughing an overwhelming sadness sweeps over me. I'm reminded that this is Cato's year to volunteer.

"Are you really going to do it?" I ask. "Do what?" he asks back. "Volunteer" as soon as I say it something comes over him.

I can't tell what it is. Sadness? Fear? No, Cato's the most fearless of us all. I have full confidence that he'll win and come home to me.

"Yeah" he replies back. "I figured" I respond. "Do you think I'll win?" He asks. "Sure, the only person who might be able to kill you would be me." I answer with a chuckle. "And since I won't be there, you'll definitely win." "Oh, so you think you could take me?" He asks cockily. "Yep." I respond confidently.

He suddenly stands up and pulls me to the wrestling mat. "What are you doing?" I exclaim. "Proving you wrong" He answers with a sly grin. "We'll see about that" I respond back.

We both take a fighting stance; I make sure to keep my eyes on his hips to tell which way he's going to move. In an instant he lunges towards me. I can already tell what he's going to do before he lunges so I quickly sidestep out of his way. He runs past me and almost falls on his face. "A little eager, aren't you?" I ask while chuckling.

He becomes enraged and charges at me again, but this time I'm not prepared and he hits me full force knocking me to the floor. He quickly pins my arms with his massive hands and straddles my torso so I can't move at all.

"I win." He simply says. "Not yet" I respond. And before he knows what happened, I grabbed his neck with my legs and force him onto the ground. I flip over him and put him into a choke hold with my arms and hold him down with my legs.

I'm applying pressure with my arms to slowly knock him out until he taps my leg to say he gives up. As soon as I feel the tap I release his neck and he gasps for air. "I win." I say in a tone that mimics his voice from before. He glares as he tries to get air back into his lungs. "Good job" he says, "I guess you could kill me if you had to." "And that was without my knives." I reply bluntly.

Tomorrow is the reaping for The 74th Annual Hunger Games. This might be the last time I see Cato. I'm so overwhelmed with sadness that I almost start to cry. I can't let Cato see me cry, I have to be strong for him. "I have to go." I say while standing up. "Ok, see you tomorrow?" He asks. "Yep, see you then." I reply.

**Please review! This is my first story and would really appreciate the feedback! Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey ya'll! I was able to get this done a lot sooner than I expected. I promise that once The games start, the chapters will get longer! Enjoy! *Note* I do not own The Hunger Games**

Chapter 2

When I wake up the next morning, I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. I roll out of bed and go to take a shower. When I get out, my mom is waiting for me to help get me ready.

"How should we do your hair?" she asks excitedly. "I don't care, curl it I guess." I respond groggily. It takes about an hour to do my hair because it's so long and thick.

After my hair is done, she starts on my makeup. "Don't go overboard, ok mom?" I tell her. "I'll try" She replies with a wink. When she's done, she tells me I can't look in the mirror until my dress is on to complete the look. I sigh and agree with her.

I feel the fabric of my dress slip over my head. I then step into my shoes, comfy flats. "You look beautiful" my mom whispers with tears in her eyes. When I turn around I'm surprised to see my mom was right.

My long, dark hair is in soft curls that fall to the middle of my back. My makeup is natural looking but brings out the flecks of gold in my dark eyes. My dress is sky blue and falls above my knees. On another girl it would probably be longer but on my 5'8" frame, it's just the right length. It's strapless which shows off my toned shoulders and arms.

It's also fitted in the torso so that it enhances my shape. My eyes travel past the dress down my muscular thighs and calves to my feet. My shoes are soft white ballet flats. If I'm going to be standing most of the day, I'm going to be comfortable.

My little sister peeks into the room. This year is her first reaping but I'm afraid that if she is reaped she won't be ready to compete. She didn't ever excel in training like I did. If she goes to the games she would probably be killed in the bloodbath. I would never let that happen, I would volunteer in a heartbeat for her.

"Are you ready to go Sage?" my mom asks her. "Yes, I think so." She replies quietly. I can tell she's terrified. I was too, at my first reaping. Just then the phone by my bed rings. I go and answer it and hear Cato on the other end. "You ready?" he asks. "Yep, you" I ask. "As ready as I'll ever be. I'll be over there in 5 minutes to walk with you to the town square, ok?" He asks. "Ok, see you then." I respond.

5 minutes later, I hear a knock on the door and know that it's Cato. I walk to the door to answer it, "Hey" "Hey, whoa." He cuts off short. "What? Too much?" I ask while fidgeting with my dress. "No, it's just that you so look amazing" he staggers out as he looks me up and down.

"Yeah, sure" I respond sarcastically. "Honestly, you look really good." He replies with a grin. After a few very awkward seconds, we are finally on our way to the town square.

By the time we get there, there's already a huge crowd of bystanders waiting to see who will be competing in the games this year. We get out fingers pricked and blood stamped and are ushered into our roped off age groups.

Our mayor comes onstage and begins the introductions of District 2's previous Victor's who will be this year's tributes' mentors. We have a lot because we're a career district, but two stand out to me. They are Brutus and Enorbia, the most well known Victors of our District. I'm sure that they are the lead mentors. Everyone else is probably just there to rope in sponsors.

After all the introductions, they play the Video that they play every year. It talks about the uprisings that started the war, how the government got the Districts back in order and the reason for The Hunger Games.

Before I know it our District escort Kish is up on stage and getting ready to draw the name from the girl's bowl. All I can think about is how I don't want it to be my sister. Her odds of being picked are very slim. Kish reaches into the bowl and pulls out a slip of paper. The whole time, as walks back to the microphone, I can hear my heartbeat in my ears. "Sage Soto!" he yells out happily. My heart sinks as I watch my sister slowly start to walk forward towards the stage. I can't let her do this. I can't. "I volunteer!" I yell, every head in the square turns to look at me. "I volunteer as tribute!" I yell again. "Well by all means! Come on up here young lady!" "And, what is your name?" he asks once I've mounted the stage. "Clove Soto" I state plainly. I've already wiped my face of any emotions, I can't look weak. "Well! That must have been your sister wasn't it?" "Yes, she is." I reply bluntly.

"Ok, let's move onto the boys." Kish says as he walks over to the boy's reaping bowl. He picks a slip of paper from the top and walks back to the center of the stage. "Martin Gilroy! "Before the boy can even leave his group, I hear a familiar voice. "I volunteer!" I look over and Cato's already half way up the stage. "And what is your name, young man?" he asks Cato when he's up by us. "Cato Knight" he states.

"Well, let's have a round of applause for District 2's tribute for this year's Hunger Games!" The crowd erupts in applause and I know that they are confident that this year's Victor will be from District 2.

"Go on, shake hands." Kish tells us. Cato reaches out his hand and I grip it firmly.

I haven't seen him since this morning and when he looks me in the eyes I see sadness. Sadness that only one of us can return. We release our grip and turn to be ushered into the Justice Building where we'll get to say goodbye to our families. I'm taken to an upstairs room that has heavy wooden doors. The Peacekeepers lock the door after the put me inside. I spend a few minutes just studying the doors until my mom and dad come into the room followed by my sister.

My dad hugs me "I'm proud of you Clove" he whispers into my ear and then releases me. I'm then engulfed into a double hug from my mom and sister. "You weren't supposed to volunteer until next year!" my mom sobs. I can already tell this is going to be very hard for her. "I had to! I couldn't let Sage go in there! She isn't well trained enough!" I retaliate. "I could have handled it. Why did you volunteer?" she asks "Trust me Sage you couldn't have. And I did it because I love you and it would kill me to watch you die." I respond. "So, you're going to watch Cato die?" she almost shouts at me.

Cato's always been like the big brother to her. I can't even answer her.

Just then, peacekeepers come in the door and grab my family saying that their time is up. As they pull my sister off of me she starts to shout. When she's almost out the door, she starts to shout "I love you! I love you, Clove! You can do this! You can w-" She's cut off by the door closing. I know what she said though.

I'm trapped in my thoughts while I wait for a Peacekeeper to come get me. My mind is racing with questions. Can I win? Do I want to win? What would it be like to come back home? Am I going to watch him die? I would never be the same again. Who am I kidding; no one ever is after they win The Games. There are just too many bad memories.

Most Victors end up trying to wipe away the pain with drugs or alcohol. A famous Victor who did that is Haymitch Abernathy from District 12. Nobody has ever seen him sober since before he was reaped 24 years ago.

I realize I'd rather die than have to go through the pain of living with all the guilt and memories. I just wouldn't be able to take it. But, I know who would handle it a whole lot better than me. It's then that I know who District 2's Victor will be this year. And it sure as heck won't be me.

**I hope ya'll like it! Please review! Thanks!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey ya'll! Ok, I'm so so so so so so sorry this took so long! I got completely overwhelmed with homework but I finally got this chapter done! It's a lot longer than the others. Hope you enjoy it! Please review!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games**

Once we've said all of our goodbyes, Kish ushers us onto the train that will take us to the capitol. We step inside and I'm immediately in awe. Everywhere I look, there's finery. From the solid, wood flooring, to the silver colored wallpaper, to the white ceiling with crown molding. "Isn't it beautiful?!" squeals Kish. "Wow, it really is" whispers Cato. I'm still too much in shock to say anything.

While we're still admiring the sitting room, the train lurches forward and sends me straight into Cato. He catches me and holds me until we're at a constant speed, which doesn't take very long considering we're on a Capitol train.

I notice that Cato hasn't seemed to notice that it's steady enough to move around now. He's still holding me safely in his arms and I can't help the blush that rises up to my cheeks.

"Um, Cato?" I say "What?" he replies innocently. "You can let go now." I try to say it clearly but my voice is muffled because he's pressed me up tight to his chest. "Oh! Sorry" he mumbles and quickly releases me.

"Well, don't you two want to see your rooms?" Kish asks eagerly. "Sure!" I reply excitedly. He leads us down a narrow hallway and stops about halfway down. There are two doors on either side of the hall. "Clove, this is your room." He says while pointing to the door on the right. "And yours is this one, Cato." He states, gesturing to the door on the left.

I open my door and am in complete shock again. My room is absolutely gorgeous. The floor is a plush white carpet. The walls are painted a chocolate brown. There is a fireplace between two huge windows that overlook the capitol. My bed is a king size and has an aqua bedspread. I walk over to the nightstand and pick up a device that looks like a remote control to something. I push the power button and the picture above the fire place folds open and a flat screen TV comes out from behind it.

I look through the drawers to my dresser and see at least 15 different outfits that I could wear if I wanted to. I open a door that is next to the dresser and walk into the bathroom.

I gasp at the size of the shower. I could fit my whole bathroom back home into it! There are jets all along the walls joined by what looks to be, a thousand different colored buttons. "This could get complicated" I mumble to myself.

I walk over to the sink and mirror to look at my reflection. I look the same I did when I woke up. I haven't cried at all so my makeup is still the same. My hair is a little bit frizzier though. "Just one of the disadvantages of having thick hair." I say to myself. "Clove! Fifteen minutes until dinner!" yells Kish.

I quickly comb through my hair and put it into a simple braid over my shoulder. I wash the makeup off of my face and look into the mirror. "This is the real Clove" I say to no one but myself again. I exit the bathroom and walk back into by bedroom. I shut the door and go over to my dresser to pick out something to wear.

I decide on black sweatpants and a loose, oversized white shirt. I hastily change and head out to the dining room. When I get there I notice that so far only I, Kish, and Cato are here. "Where are our mentors?" I ask Kish as I enter the room. "Probably at the bar." He sighs "I'll go get them."

When he leaves it's just Cato and I. Well the avoxes are here as well but they don't say anything. An Avox is someone who has committed a crime against the Capitol and as punishment; their tongues are cut out and are forced to serve the tributes and gamemakers at The Hunger Games.

I sit in the seat across from Cato and notice that he changed his clothes as well. He's now in a pair of dark jeans and a simple grey t-shirt. I have to say he looks a lot better in that to me than he would in a suit and tie. I mentally slap myself for thinking that.

These are The Hunger Games. There's no room for romance. Twenty three of us will die. One will come out. It's that simple. Alliances are typically formed but are usually broken off once it gets down to single digit tributes. They know that only one can win.

"Uh, Clove? Clove? Clove!" Cato shouts. I'm immediately snapped out of my thoughts. "What?" I answer back. "You were staring at me, why? He asks. I immediately blush. I had no clue I was staring at him the whole time. "Sorry" I mutter under my breath."Wait, if he noticed I was staring, he had to have been staring at me. Right?" I think to myself. Just then Kish walks back into the room followed by our two mentors, Brutus and Enorbia.

I've seen them before around District 2 and at the reapings. They've also been on TV a few times. I've never seen them up close though. They're mush bigger in person. Brutus looks to be about six feet tall. I can tell he's all muscle. He could probably snap me in half like a toothpick. Enorbia is a little bit taller than me. She has long blonde hair and vicious looking green eyes.

"Well, well, well. It looks like we have a good pair this year. Don't we Enorbia?" Brutus says to Enorbia. "Yes, we do. You two look like you're a pair of fighters. Am I correct?" she asks us.

"We've been training at the academy since we were six years old. So yeah, we know what we're doing. " Cato replies. "I'm Cato, and this is Clove" he adds gesturing to me.

"Well, now that we all know each other, let's eat. Shall we?" Kish asks. Our mentors and Kish walk over to the table and sit down. The Avoxes take that as their cue to begin serving.

The first course is a plate of steamed vegetables. The second course is pork tenderloin with a cherry glaze and mashed potatoes. The third course is a chocolate raspberry mouse with whipped cream.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever had anything this good before." I comment. "Isn't it great? The Capitol has the best food around!" Kish replies. "So, how are you two going to play it in the games?" Enorbia asks us with a creepy smile. It's then that I notice her signature smile

That's how Enorbia won her games. She would pin her victims down and rip out their throats with her teeth. After she won, she became so famous for the way that she killed, so she had all her teeth pointed and plated in gold with a ruby imbedded in each one. "So? Have either of you ever killed anyone before?" Brutus asks us. "Yep, a bunch" Cato replies. "Me too" I add. "Well that's a good start " Brutus states back. "Ok, you two should get to bed. We arrive in the Capitol at seven o'clock in the morning. Be ready to go at six." Enorbia tells us. Then, she and Brutus leave to their own rooms.

As I watch them leave, I'm trapped in my thoughts.

Just how many people have I killed? In District 2, all the criminals sentenced with the death penalty are taken to the training center where the older tributes get to practice their killing skills. Gruesome, I know. But how else are we going to learn effectively?

We're scored on technique and effectiveness. The highest scores usually mean you have a pretty good chance of being a volunteer that year.

Cato and I were both on the volunteer list. He was at the top of the boys, and I was third on the girls list. I wonder why the top two girls didn't volunteer for Sage?

Probably to get back at me for all the times that I've beaten them in training, and for having Cato as my best friend. He's always been popular with the girls. I can see why. He's tall, blonde, blue-eyed, and pure muscle.

Whenever I'm with him in training, all the girls glare daggers at me. I don't know why though. It's not like we're dating or anything. We're just friends.

"Clove!" Cato shouts. I'm snapped out of my thoughts again. "What?" I ask. "You were staring again." He replies. Crap, that's twice today. Once again, I feel the blush rise to my cheeks. "Sorry, I was just thinking." I mutter. "About what?" he asks. "Nothing, I'm going to bed. Goodnight Cato" I say. "Goodnight" he replies with a smirk.

I quickly stand up and walk to my room. I shut my door behind me and head to the bathroom. I take off my clothes and step inside the shower. "Ok, let's see if we can work this thing' I tell myself.

I press a blue button, and icy cold water comes sputtering out of the jets. I get sprayed and shriek from the coldness. I quickly push the button again and turn off the water.

Next I try the red one. This time I'm greeted by close to boiling water. "Ow, ow!" I yell while trying to avoid the water. Once again I press the button to shut off the water. "Well, this is getting me nowhere" I mumble.

After many failed attempts of pushing random buttons, covering myself with all different scents of shampoo and soap, I sigh and push a purple button in on the center of the panel.

To my surprise, I'm showered with nice hot water. Not as hot as the red button though. "Finally!" I shout with happiness. I spend about 5 minutes in the water, trying to rinse off all the soap from my hair and body.

Once I'm satisfied that it's all gone, I push the purple button again and step out of the shower onto the mat. When I step out I'm almost blown over by a spurt of warm air. I guess it's to dry me off. It's very effective, not leaving a single drop of water on my body or in my hair.

I wrap myself in a towel and walk back into my room. I'm just about to get dressed when I hear a knock on my door. I rush over to answer it and gasp when I see Cato standing in front of me. "Cato!" I yell. "What?" He replies innocently. "Can't you see I'm a little busy?" I answer irritably. "Yep, I can tell." He says with a glance down my body.

His glance makes me suddenly self conscious about the fact that I'm naked under the towel. "What do you need?" I sigh. "I just wanted to talk. I can't sleep. Care to join me in the dining car?" He asks. "Like this?" I ask appalled. "If you want" He replies with a smirk.

"You had better be joking. Otherwise I might have to kill you" I say. "Whoa, whoa. Easy girl, I was kidding" He says with his hands up in surrender. "And besides, it's against the rules to fight before the games." He replies confidently. "Whatever, I'll get dressed and meet you there in 5 minutes." I answer

I shut my door before he can respond. I walk over to my dresser and pull out a pair of fluffy, blue, sleep shorts and a white tank top. I get dressed and head to the dining car.

When I walk into the room, I see Cato sitting at the window of the train. I walk over to join him. "Hey" I say softly. "Hey" He replies without even looking up. I sit down across from him and pull my legs up to my chest.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" I ask him. "I'm not sure, really. Honestly I just wanted company. This train gets a little lonely once everyone's gone to bed." He replies. "Oh ok, fine by me." I say back. We just sit, looking out the window without saying a word for a few minutes before Cato breaks the silence.

"Are you scared?" he asks. "Yeah, a little bit. You?" I reply. "I know I shouldn't be, but yeah." He answers. "Why shouldn't you be scared?" I ask confused. "Because I'm a career. Careers are supposed to be brave and fearless killers. Not homesick, scared little boys." He replies with a scowl. "Well, I'm a brave and fearless killer," I say sarcastically, "but I'm still afraid." I answer. Cato just grunts.

"Honestly, I don't think anyone has gone into the arena without being at least a little bit afraid. I mean, they know that twenty-three kids have to die, and they could be one of them if they're not careful." I say.

"And at least we're well prepared for this. We've had at least ten years of training. How do you think the tributes from the outer districts feel? They probably don't even know how to hold a weapon. But we can kill in 27 different ways. We have a much better chance of winning." I add breathlessly.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. It still doesn't change the fact that one, if either of us won't be coming home. That's what scares me the most" He trails off "Losing you." He finishes.

Well, that caught me off guard. Seeing the fear in his eyes about having to see me die is almost unbearable. Before I know what I'm doing, I throw myself into his arms and hug him as tight as I can.

I can tell that he didn't expect me to do that. But after he gets over the shock, he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me into him. We stay like this for a few seconds until I break the embrace. "We should probably get to bed" I say. "Yeah, I suppose." He replies as he stands up and walks with me back to our rooms.

Just as I'm about to open my door he suddenly grabs me and pulls me into another tight embrace. "Goodnight Clove" He mumbles into my neck. "Goodnight" I reply as he pulls away. I open my door and head towards by bed. I'm asleep before my head hits the pillow.

**Well, there it is. Hope ya'll liked it! Please review! It would make me so happy to have at least thirty reviews before the fifth chapter! Please feel free to comment on any issues that you see. I want to make this the best that I possibly can but i'll need ya'll's help! I'm also open to any ideas you may have. Thanks! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok, chapter 4! Hope ya'll enjoy! Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games.**

In the morning, I'm woken up by the pounding of Kish's fist on my door and his obnoxious squealing. "Wake up Clove! We'll arrive in the Capitol in three hours!" He yells excitedly. He must be really anxious to get back to his friends. I'll bet he fits right in with his purple tinted skin and neon orange hair. It must be the normal look there.

I groan and roll out of my bed. I groggily drag myself to the bathroom. Once I'm there, I strip off my PJ's and step inside the shower. I pay no attention to what buttons I'm pushing, so I end up getting smothered with various smelling soaps and scrubs.

I step out of the shower, deliberately avoiding the mat. I want to dry myself off and leave my hair damp so that it's curly. I walk over to the sink and push a few buttons until I find the one that gives me a toothbrush.

I push another button and a robot arm reaches out, grabs my toothbrush, applies toothpaste to it, and then hands it back to me. "Hm, convenient." I say to myself.

I brush my teeth, comb out my hair, and walk back into my room. I open my dresser and pull out a pair of jeans, a loose fitting green shirt and a pair of brown leather boots. Once I'm dressed, I head down to the dining car.

When I arrive, breakfast has already been laid out on the table. I walk over and sit next to Enorbia and Cato. I immediately help myself to the different kinds of fruits on a silver platter. I also have an omelet with ham, cheese and tomato.

I notice that Cato eats an insane amount of food. He must be trying to gain more weight so that he can last longer in the arena without food. I guess I should be doing that as well, so I immediately ask for another omelet.

When we're finished with breakfast, Kish hurries to the front of the train to see how much longer we have. My guess would be two hours. When he hurries back excitedly, my guess is confirmed.

"Well, we have some time to kill. Want to watch the reapings and size up the competition?" Cato asks. "Sure" I respond.

We walk over to the couch in front of the TV. I sit down in the middle leaving Cato the option of which side to sit on. He chooses the side to my left and plops down next to me. He casually drapes his arm over the top of the sofa behind my head and leans back. I put my feet up on the table and sink into the couch with my arms crossed across my chest.

He grabs the remote and flips channels until we find the recaps playing. It's just started which is good so we can see everybody.

It starts with District 1. As usual, the tributes are volunteers. The girl has the announcers immediately fawning over her and I can see why, she has long blonde hair, daring green eyes, a perfect white smile, a cute button nose and a great body. She's about my height but a little bit lighter.

"I'll bet she has no trouble getting sponsors" I scoff. "And what makes you think you'll have trouble?" Cato asks. "Well, for one, I don't look like that. And two, I'm not a people person. I don't get people to like me very easily, in case you haven't noticed."

"Well, if it means anything, I think you look much better than her." Cato whispers into my ear. I immediately blush. Does he really think I'm prettier than her? Oh gosh Clove, you're such a girl. I scold myself mentally and immediately push the thought out of my mind.

I turn my attention back to the reaping as a tall boy volunteers. He looks about as tall as Cato, but much thinner."What's with his stupid facial expression?" Cato asks jokingly. "He's probably excited that this moment he's worked for his entire life is finally here." I reply.

The recaps move onto our reaping and as I expected, I'm shown charging towards the stage screaming that I volunteer. It really isn't that bad, it just looks like I really wanted to do this thing.

Cato is shown volunteering and walking towards the stage confidently. The announcers in the background are commenting about how he looks the most vicious and threatening so far. I agree with them.

The recaps continue on, and though a few tributes from District 4 and 7 look like they could make it in the Career pack, no one else stands out. That is, until we get to the boy from District 11.

He's massive. He's almost as tall as Cato and just as muscular. "I want him in our pack." Cato states. "Fine by me" I answer. I figured that Cato would be the leader of the Career pack this year.

He's the only one with the most fear factor, knows how to kill effectively, and has leadership skills, although, the District 11 boy might come close. They said his name was Thresh, quite fitting if you ask me.

District 12's reaping is quite a surprise though. There's a volunteer. A girl who looks to be about 16 lunges forward after a 12 year olds name was called. When she mounts the stage, I can tell that she's fairly tall, maybe 5'7". She's not scrawny which is weird for District 12. She actually has a fair bit of muscle on her.

"Hm, what about her?" I ask Cato. "We'll see. I want to see how she does in training first. Then I'll decide." He states. As I turn my attention back to the screen, the girl has just stated her name, Katniss, when District 12's escort asks for a round of applause for District 12's first volunteer.

Instead of applauding though, the whole district takes three fingers on their left hand, kisses them, then they raise them up toward the girl. "I wonder what that means." I think aloud. "I don't know, we'll have to ask Brutus and Enorbia" Cato replies.

Next, a boy, who looks to be about 16 as well, is reaped. He mounts the stage with fear plastered all over his face. No one volunteers for him. After they're ushered into their Justice Building, the screen goes black. "Well, that's it I guess." Cato says.

"Yep, guess so" I say "I wonder how far away we are?" I ask as I stand up, stretch out my arms and legs from sitting in the same position for so long, and walk towards the window. To my surprise, it's all black. "Must be a tunnel" Cato says as he walks over to join me.

It's only black for a few more seconds before we're blinded by white and shiny steel buildings and roads. "Wow" I whisper in awe. Cato is completely silent.

It's very beautiful. Everywhere I look; it's either shining or complete white. We pull into a train station and our train is flooded by reporters. Cato starts to wave to them and I give him a questioning look. "What? This is how you make friends." He states plainly. I think about it, then finally give in and begin to smile and wave.

Kish comes squealing out of the bar car followed by Enorbia and a very drunk Brutus. Cato leans down and whispers "Wow, I didn't know you could get drunk in less than 2 hours" to me. "Must be a new record" I chuckle.

"Well, let's be on our way!" Kish says excitedly. "We have to get you two to the remake center to get ready for the parade tonight!" he adds. "Joy" I grumble. "Now, one bit of advice, don't resist." Enorbia tells us. "They know what they're doing, so just listen to your stylist and everything will go smoothly." She finishes.

We exit the train to be flooded by camera flashes and reporters shouting questions. A group of Peacekeepers come towards us and escorts us to the car that will take us to the remake center.

Kish gets in first, followed by me, Cato and Enorbia hauling Brutus inside after her. We ride for about 10 minutes until we pull up to a large white building. We exit the car and enter the building. Enorbia takes me one way and Kish takes Cato the other way.

She drops me off in a long hallway lined with blue curtains. I'm in the second room, probably because of my district. I sit down on the table and wait for my prep team to arrive.

While I'm waiting, I see the girl from District 8 being ushered into her own area, and the girl from District 1 into the area next to mine. I hear an awful ripping sound and a scream. It must be hair removal time for somebody.

Suddenly, three people enter into the little room that I'm sitting inside of. Two of them are women, and one is a man. One of the women looks fairly normal, aside from her blue hair and harsh makeup, the only alterations she has are a few tattoos along her arms and on her face. The other woman is a little freakier looking though. She has pink tinted skin, bright green hair, long orange nails and rhinestones all over her body. The man is green, has a shaved head with tattoos all over it to look like hair, bright purple eyeliner and lipstick, and pink eyes.

They look like a bunch of circus freaks to me, but I don't say so. They're probably as sensitive as puppies.

I'm told to strip naked and to lie down on the table. I reluctantly do as they say while I repeat Enorbia's advice in my head. I'm smothered from my neck to my ankles in some kind of disgusting smelling green goop. Then scrubbed to the bone with different brushes by the pink woman while the one with the blue hair is washing my hair and working all the tangles out of it.

The man is busy scrubbing my feet and shaping my toenails before adding a coat of clear polish. The blue haired woman begins to wash my face with various soaps and applies lotions afterwards. She then begins to shape my eyebrows with a tiny pair of scissors and tweezers.

Next comes the part I've been dreading. My legs are coated in a thick paste with strips of cloth on top. The man tells me to get ready and I grip the table tightly. The pink lady grabs a strip of cloth and rips it off of my leg. I hold back a scream as every hair from that spot on my leg is ripped out.

She repeats the process about 25 times until my whole left leg is completely hairless. "One down, one to go!" she says in a high pitched voice. I brace myself as she begins my right leg.

The man starts to rub the same paste on my under and forearms. "Oh no, you're doing my arms too?" I ask him. "We're doing your whole body dear!" he says as he applies the cloths to the paste.

"My whole body?" I ask. "Yep" the lady with blue hair says as she begins to apply paste to my stomach and lower body. "This part is the most painful, you might want to hold on" she tells me as she's about to rip the first cloth off. I grip the table until my knuckles are white. "One, two, three!" she counts as she rips it.

I can't help the scream that I let out as my hair is once again, ripped from by body. I hear the girl from District 1 right next to me, scream horrifically as well. At least I'm not the only one. After a very long hour, I'm completely hair free, Except for the hair on my head and eyebrows of course.

I'm hosed down one more time, then, I'm rubbed with a flowery smelling lotion. My prep team finishes my nails, and then they rush out of the room. I sit on the cold metal table waiting for my stylist to come.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, he pulls back the curtain and walks towards the stool next to the table. He sits down and offers me a handshake. "I'm Nadab" he says with a smile. "Clove" I respond while shaking his hand. "Well Clove, let's have lunch while we discuss your parade costume." He says as he helps me into a blue robe.

We have roasted duck with a cherry glaze and steamed vegetables for lunch. I wash mine down with a glass of milk while Nadab has wine. He begins to give me hints about my costume but won't tell me completely what it is because he wants it to be a surprise.

After lunch, he begins to do my hair. He curls it and pins it into an intricate hairstyle. He does my makeup, and then he tells me to stand on the pedestal in the corner of the room with my eyes closed.

I do as he says while he gets out my costume. I keep my eyes closed as he slips what feel to be a corset over my head. He laces it up tightly, to the point that I can barely breathe.

He puts a silky dress that stops just above my knees over the corset. Then, I feel a very heavy weight on my shoulder as he puts on me what feels to be some kind of armor.

He fastens a heavy belt around my waist and helps me into my shoes. They're actually more like boots. I can feel that they have quite a heel as he slips them on my feet and lace them up.

As a finishing touch, he puts a helmet on my head. It's heavy like the armor. He adjusts a few things here and there, touches up my makeup and then tells me I can open my eyes.

When I do, I see a gorgeous roman goddess staring back at me. I'm completely speechless. I'm shining from head to toe. My boots have what looks to be a 5 inch heel, making me stand at over 6 feet tall.

The corset makes my waist look miniscule while my hips and upper body are curvy and accentuated. The dress is light and frilled at the skirt, while the armor is gold, heavy and deadly looking.

My makeup is strongest at my eyes making them appear much bigger than they are. My skin is bronzed and shining like the armor while my hair is done in an ancient roman style. The helmet is golden and has two wings at the top on either side of my head.

I look gorgeous, deadly, fierce, and intimidating. If I look this good, Cato must look ferocious. "Wow, I look amazing" I mutter in awe of myself. "Thank you so much" I tell Nadab with a hug. "You'll make them drop dead." He tells me.

We exit the room and walk down the hallway towards the stables. I notice that a lot of the peacekeepers are staring at me. I ignore their stares and look straight ahead towards the stable keeping my head high and walking confidently.

"Make them fear you." I tell myself as I see the doors open when we approach, and take a deep breath before walking inside.

**Please review! It makes me motivated to write. I'd love to get 35 reviews before the next chapter, and if I do, I'll make it extra long for ya'll! Thanks!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I'm so sorry this is late again! I feel like i'm letting all of ya'll down. Well, I hope ya'll enjoy! Please review! DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games.**

We enter the stables and my senses are immediately overwhelmed by the smell of horses and am greeted by Kish. "Oh, wow." He whispers in awe when he sees me. "You look like a goddess" he says. "Thanks" I reply. He guides me over to our chariot, while Nadab follows behind us.

As I approach the chariot, Kish says something and Brutus, Enorbia and Cato turn around and look at us. When they see me, their jaws hit the floor. I walk over to Cato. He's dressed in a costume similar to mine, but he has silver tunic under his armor.

He also has gladiator type sandals and greaves on. Our helmets are the same though, along with the armor, although mine is a little bit more fitted while his shows off his massive biceps that have been bronzed with makeup to look even more defined, not that he needs it though. I have to chuckle when I realize that even though I have 5 inch heels on, we're still not eye-to-eye.

"You look amazing" he whispers to me. I blush immediately but, luckily the lighting in here is dim enough so no one can see it. "Thank you" I reply. "You don't look too bad yourself" I add. He gives me a smirk. I can tell I just boosted his self confidence up a few notches, but that's good, considering I'm trying to do everything I can to make sure that he's the one that goes home.

I watch District 1 enter the stables and have to stifle back a laugh. "They look like flamingos!" Cato mutters to me. And they sure do. From head to toe, they're covered in fluorescent pink feathers. The boy looks absolutely ridiculous to me, but the girl doesn't look too bad.

They look over at us and I can tell that they're instantly jealous. The boy scowls at us, while the girl looks directly at Cato, smiles, then winks at him. "Wow" I say as I roll my eyes. "What?" Cato asks. I can tell he likes the attention. "Nothing" I say.

If everybody else's costumes are that stupid looking, then we'll be the favorite for sure. And they are. District 5 is dressed up like light bulbs, while District 7 is covered in paper. All the rest are just as stupid looking.

We're told to get up into our chariot and Cato gets up first, then he offers me his hand. I take it and let him help me up. As soon as I'm up though, I release it. We hold onto the bars on the side of our chariot and are lurched forwards by the horses.

We get in line behind District 1 and watch as they're pulled onto the street. We follow shortly after. As soon as we come out of the stables, the crowd goes wild. They're chanting 'District 2' over and over again. Then they start chanting our names.

Cato immediately starts to wave, I do the same. I glance over at him and am struck in awe. He looks like a god. His skin is shining and all the lights are reflecting his armor making appear unworldly. I pray I look the same. I look back at the crowd and see a screen with us on it. I see myself and am immediately relieved. I look just as good, if not better than Cato.

My skin is glowing, I look 9 feet tall, and my makeup makes me look fierce. I smile and wave to the crowds of people as they continue to chant mine and Cato's names. I'm completely absorbed in the attention, until I hear our names being shouted less and less.

I wonder what happed and look up to the screens. To my surprise, District 12 is on fire. Well, there goes being the favorite. "How could they be on fire!" Cato growls ferociously. I can tell he's jealous that he's being outshined and know that I won't hear the end of this for a while.

We continue to smile and wave at all of the cheering people as we finish up the parade. We pull back into the stable and our carriage stops so suddenly that I'm almost thrown off of the front of it.

The only thing that keeps me inside is Cato's hands that grabbed my waist when I lurched forward. "Nice reflexes, thanks." I say to him. "You're welcome" He replies back curtly. I can tell he's still quite irritated about being upstaged by an outer district.

Cato hops off the carriage and I attempt to follow, but I stop right before I jump down. "What's wrong?" Cato asks me. "I'd break my neck if I jumped from this high in these shoes." I say bluntly. "Oh" he says. I bend over to take off my shoe when I feel my feet being lifted off of the floor.

"Cato! What are you doing?!" I yell. Probably a little bit louder than I should have. "Simply helping my team mate of course." He says with a smirk. "I'm perfectly capable of getting out of a stupid chariot!" I growl at him as he puts me back down.

"Well, you said you'd break your neck if you tried. We can't have that happen now, can we?" he asks innocently."Fine" I sigh heavily and roll my eyes as he scoops me back up and places me gently on the ground.

Just as I feel my feet firmly on the ground, District 12's chariot pulls into the stables. I see Cato tense up. We watch as they get off of their chariots, still smoking from the fire. The girl looks over at us and I give her the meanest glare I can muster up.

She immediately looks frightened and turns away. Wow, I didn't think I would look that scary. I look over at Cato and see the real reason why she turned away so fast. He looks vicious. He must have given her a glare as well. I can practically see the steam coming from his ears.

"Who do they think they are?" He growls. "They must think they actually have a chance this year." He adds. District 12 has never had the best costumes; it's always been a Career District. "We'll see about that" I growl as I storm away from the chariot and Cato and head towards the elevator.

I push the button, watch as the doors open, step inside and push our floor number. I'm in the process of removing my shoes and the doors are just about closed when a hand slides in between the crack. The doors retract immediately and Cato steps inside and stands next to me. He pushes our number and I watch as the doors slide shut.

We ride in silence until the elevator stops and the doors open at our floor. I storm out and head down the hallway to my room, not even paying attention to what my new "home" looks like while I yank off my helmet and armor. I slam my door shut and strip off the rest of my clothes, throwing them across the room.

I stomp into the bathroom, step inside the shower and start pushing buttons. "How? How could District 12 look better than us?" say to myself furiously as I attempt to scrub off all the layers of makeup. Growing up, I was never number 2. I've always been number 1. I'm not used to not always being the favorite or the best. I've always been the favorite child in my family, always been Number 1 in training, except for Cato.

I hate being upstaged. I will kill that stupid 'Fire-Girl'. I'll torture her, cut her up, limb by limb. I stand in the steaming hot water until I've calmed down enough to go back out to the living room. I wonder how Cato's handling it.

I step out of the shower and towel off; I open up my dresser and pull out some long grey pajama pants and an oversized green t-shirt. I put them on and get the water off of my hair with my towel. I open my door and immediately see a broken vase. "Uh oh, this isn't good" I say to myself as I hear something else shatter.

I cautiously walk down the hall, avoiding the shattered pieces of glass that are everywhere. I turn the corner and see Cato, about to throw a plate at the fireplace. "Cato!" I yell. "What?" He growls. "Is all of this really necessary? I ask.

"You tell me. We got upstaged by the lowest of lows." He says as he throws the plate that was in his hand. I cringe as it shatters everywhere. Where are Brutus and Enorbia when you need them?

"So? It's not like they're going to outshine us in training, are they?" I ask confidently. "Like that'll ever happen." Cato says and I can tell that he's starting to cool down a little bit.

I knew that would help. Cato's the best there is when it comes to training, and he knows it. He has everything going for him. Strength, skills, and fear factor.

I notice that he didn't ever change out of his costume. "Do you want to go change and shower then meet me on the roof to discuss strategies?" I ask him, hoping to change his attitude a little bit. "Sure, I'll meet you up there in 10 minutes" He says with a smile as he walks down the hall towards his room.

Cato really is sweet, to me at least; although that's probably because he's been my training partner for 9 years. I can read him like a book and vise versa. If I had met him when we were older, I probably would have been terrified of him. I know all of the other boys from training are. The girls are too busy trying to get his attention to notice how deadly he is.

I walk over to the elevator, step inside, and push the button that will take me to the roof. About a minute later, I step out of the stainless doors onto the large terrace. The only things that are lighting it up are a few lanterns strung here and there and the lights from the people celebrating on the streets.

I walk over to a bench by the edge of the roof and sit down. As I'm waiting for Cato, I listen to the Capitol people chant the names of their favorite Districts. The few that stand out to me are 1, 2, 4, and 12. The first three are to be expected because we're Career Districts, but 12? Did they really make that much of an impression?

I guess so. Well, hopefully it dies down before Cato gets here; otherwise, it might enrage him again. After about 5 minutes of waiting and listening, I get bored and decide to explore all the different plants and trees that are up here.

I walk around for a little while, weaving my way through the maze of shrubbery until I hear the ding of the elevator. I look over a bush to see Cato step out and walk over to the edge of the roof. He must not know I'm up here so I decide to have a little bit of fun.

I creep out from behind the bushes and tiptoe over to Cato. His back is turned so he can't see me, and the noise from the crowds drowns out the noise I'm making.

I stand no more than 3 inches from him, and say "If we were in the arena, you would be dead by now" right into his ear. The sound of my voice must have startled Cato because when he turns around, he abruptly yells and just about jumps out of his pants.

I'm laughing so hard from his reaction that I get a cramp in my side and end up on the ground, still laughing. "Ha-ha, very funny Clove" He says sarcastically. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it" I say in between laughs. "Well, are we going to talk or no?" He says while offering me a hand up.

I take it and he hauls me up so quickly that I almost crash into him. I'm unaware of how close we are until he steps away and I feel coldness from his absence. We walk over to the bench and sit down. "So, what strategy are we talking about here?" he asks. "For training" I say. "And for our pack in the arena" I add.

"Ok, so tomorrow, we need to show off a lot. We need to make all of the other tributes fear us." He says."You need to work mainly with knives and try to add a few fancy moves while you're there." He finishes. "Done, and you should work with the swords and spears, but manly swords. Try to cut up some dummies while you're at it." I reply. "Already planning on it" he says with a smirk.

"Now, for the pack, I was thinking of Districts 1 and 4." I say. "Fine, but I also want the boy from 11." He says. "Keep an eye on some of the others just to see if they're any good with weapons, but don't invite them in until I've seen what they can do. Got it?" He asks. "Got it." I reply.

"Well, that's all I've got." I say. "Me too" he answers. I stand up and walk towards the elevator. He follows me and we walk through the shining doors. I push our floor and lean up against the wall while we ride down.

When the doors open, we step out and see Brutus passed out on the couch, Enorbia talking into her phone and Kish eating something at the table. No one notices that we're here so I motion for Cato to follow me. We walk down the hall and stop at our doors. I give Cato a hug goodnight and he surprises me by kissing my cheek when we let go. "Thanks for always being there Clove" he says and turns around and goes into his room and shuts his door leaving me standing shocked in the hallway.

I walk into my room, not even paying attention to what I'm doing as I shower and dry myself off. I don't even bother to brush my teeth before I go to bed. It takes me a long time to finally fall asleep, but when I do, I'm out cold.

**Well, there you have it. Once again, please review or comment on and errors that you see. I want to make this the best that I can, but can only do that with ya'lls help! Thanks for being patient!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ok, I'm ashamed...it's been almost 3 months since my last update. If I still have followers, I hope you like it. I don't blame you if you've left though. Anyways, here you go! DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games**

I'm woken up by the sun shining through the blinds hanging on the window and into my eyes. I sit up, stretch and squint through the light to look outside. All that I see is people rushing everywhere. Today is the first day of training. We'll have two and a half days to train before our session with the gamemakers. Then we have the interviews on our final night before the arena.

In less than four days, I'll be inside the arena, doing what I've trained to do for the past eleven years. Kill. The thought of it makes me nervous, excited, and anxious to get it over with and return home to my family. I guess I've had a change of heart about going home.

I realized just how much I miss my family and want to be back with them. But in order to do that, I'll probably have to kill Cato. I'm dreading that day. He's my best friend, he's always been there for me and now I have to kill him, otherwise, he'll kill me.

I groan at the thought and get out of bed and go through my morning routine. When I'm all dried off from the shower and my teeth are clean, I walk to my dresser and pull out my training uniform for the next few days.

It's a simple black bodysuit with our district number on each sleeve and the back of our necks. I zip up the back and put on black boots that stop just above my ankles. I pull my hair up into a ponytail, secure it and head to the dining room.

I'm the first one there so I decide to sit and wait on everybody else to come. After a few minutes, I hear something banging down the hallway. I stand up just as Kish come crashing through the doorway and falls face down on the floor. When I walk over to help him up, my nose is overwhelmed by the smell of alcohol and body odor.

"Out partying all night?" I ask him. "Yep!" he says with a hiccup. I manage to get him to a chair and plop him down. I straighten myself up and return back to my seat. I wait for a good ten minutes before I finally decide to go ahead and eat. Brutus and Enorbia are probably nursing hangovers too. They were just smart enough to stay in bed.

I eat in silence considering Kish is passed out with his face in his oatmeal. I finish breakfast and decide to go and see if Cato's up yet. I walk down the hall to his room and knock a few times on his door. He doesn't respond so I decide to try the handle. It's unlocked. I quietly open the door and peek inside. He's passed out like a baby on his bed.

His blankets are a mess all around him and he has bed head. I notice something else. He's all sweaty. He must have had a nightmare. He would get them sometimes when we would camp in the mountains in District 2. He would yell and sweat and all I could do was listen. He didn't like it when I woke him up in the middle of one. He said he wanted to know how it ended and I always thought that was stupid.

I decide to let him sleep a little longer. We don't have to be down to training for a few hours anyway. I'm sure he'll need all the sleep he can get. I turn around and tip toe quietly out the door. It's just about shut when I hear him mumble something. The mumble is followed by a yell. I force myself to walk away telling myself I'm just honoring his wishes.

I walk back out to the living room and plop down on the sofa. I click the remote until I find the morning news playing. I know it won't be like the news back home. It'll probably be all about the famous Capitol celebrities' latest surgeries or hairdos. I end up getting fed up with it and just turn the TV off. I find a magazine on the table and lay down on the couch to read it. I get about four sentences in before I'm so bored that I fall asleep.

"Hey, Clove! Wake up!" I open my eyes to see Cato staring down at me. "What?" I moan sleepily. "We have to be at training in 10 minutes. I've been trying to wake you up for the past half hour but you sleep like a log!" he says. "Crap!" I yell as I'm yanked out of grogginess. I rush to the bathroom, splash some water on my face and run to meet Cato at the elevator. I make it just as the stainless doors are closing. On the ride down, I re-braid my hair and smooth out my clothes.

A few moments later, the elevator dings and the doors slide open to reveal a huge gymnasium with different weapon and survival stations all around the room. There are also obstacle courses to test your agility and speed. As we step out, I notice that we're not the last ones here; in fact, we're one of the first Districts to arrive. The only others that are here are Districts 1, 4 and 7. They're all gathered in a circle in the heart of the room.

Cato and I walk over to join them. The girl from District 1 glances up and sees us, well mainly Cato, walking over and starts gussying up. "Oh Lord" I say as I roll my eyes. This chick is really starting to get on my nerves. As soon as we reach them, she's practically glued to Cato. "Sleep well?" she asks while batting her eyelashes. I want to go throw up. "Yes, fine thank you." Cato says bluntly and then walks away from her without even a glance back.

I follow him and look over my shoulder to see her standing frozen with her jaw wide open. I laugh and jog to catch up to Cato and his long strides. "You know, you're probably the first one to turn her down and walk away like that." I say breathlessly as I catch up. "So?" he says with a smirk and continues walking. I laugh again and follow him over to the sword station.

He walks to the rack that contains a very wide variety of swords and runs his hand over them. "The others need to hurry up and get here so I can get my hands onto one of these babies." He says with a gleam in his eye. We walk around the gym admiring all the different stations while we wait on the other tributes and getting more and more anxious by the minute.

After a few more minutes, all but one of the Districts, are here. "Who's missing?" I whisper to Cato. He looks around at everyone for a few seconds, putting his height into good use then leans down to my ear to tell me. "It's 12. Fire Girl's District." He says with a scowl. Just as he's said it, the elevator dings and the doors open as they walk out. They look around and realize that they're the last ones to arrive.

"Well, that must be embarrassing." I say to Cato with a smirk. He chuckles and shakes his head at them as they quickly walk over to join the rest of us. I notice that they try to keep their distance from Cato and me. I'm busy studying all of the tributes when I'm snapped out of focus by someone clapping. I look over to see a woman standing in the middle of the room on an elevated platform.

"Everyone come and gather around!" she yells. We as told and she begins speaking again. "My name is Atala. I'll be your head trainer for the next couple of days." She says. She continues to go through out all of the rules, and then describes the different stations. I'm hardly paying any attention because I've gone back to studying the other tributes.

I try to pick up and weakness I can get from them. Such as any fear, doubt or anxiety that I can use against them in the arena but also so that they respect and fear me during training. Atala finishes talking and releases us to go train. Cato immediately heads towards the sword station, no surprise, while I go to the knives. As I'm walking over, I feel Fire Girl's eyes on me so I decide that now would be a good time to show what I can do.

"Do you know how to throw?" The instructor asks me. "Yeah" I reply. "Ok, just tell me when." He says as he holds his hand over a button. I roll my shoulders, pop my neck and knuckles and take my stance with my hands over a smorgasbord of knives. I take a deep breath and exhale. "Go." I tell him. He pushes the button and dummies with targets on them light up.

I grab and knife, flick my wrist and the knife goes hurling towards the bulls eye on the first target. Without missing a beat, I send three more knives flying towards various targets, hitting them dead on every time. There's one more dummy that I haven't hit in the back of the bunch. I grab a small dagger, take another deep breath, and launch it at the dummy's head. It imbeds itself right between it's eyes.

My whole show is over in less than thirty seconds. I look over to see Fire Girl's reaction. To my delight, it's a mix of shock and pure terror. I smile and take a bow before I walk over to join Cato at the swords. He's in the process of decapitating dummies when I arrive. I observe as he severs its limbs and watch as its head fall to the ground as he removes it with a single swipe. Just as he's finished, the bell that signals that its lunch time rings.

We all file into the cafeteria and get in line in order of Districts. We move down the line as machines slop and pour food onto our trays. Once we have all of our food, we head to the tables to sit down. I sit first, and Cato follows, sitting right next to me. The boy from District 1 sits on the other side of me causing me to be squished between to sweaty, smelly guys.

At first, there's a little bit of awkwardness at the table between all of us because we hardly know each other, but then, Marvel, the boy from District 1 cracks a hilarious joke to break the ice and he succeeds because we're all laughing our heads off and exchanging other jokes.

Before we know it, the bell that signals the end of lunch rings and we all file back into the gym for a few more hours of training. We walk back in and Cato heads for the spears but I grab his hand and pull him the opposite direction towards the survival stations.

"Why Clove?" he complains. "Because, it's important for us to know what kind of things we can eat if our food ever runs out." I say. "Ha! Fat chance of that happening." He snorts. I roll my eyes at his cockiness and try to pay attention to the instructor, who's explaining the different kinds of poisonous and eatable berries, but it gets to be difficult over the sound of Cato pretending to yawn and acting bored. I finally get fed up with him and snap. "You know what!" I exclaim "Why don't you just go back over to your shiny toys and show off more!" "And I'll try to be sad when you die of eating a poisonous plant out of starvation" I finish with a loud exhale of air.

I turn my attention back to the instructor, listening intently as he continues his lecture. After a while, I notice that Cato hasn't left yet. I shrug it off and walk away as the instructor finishes. We train for another hour or then we're dismissed to go back to our rooms.

We all pile into an elevator and begin our ascent. Cato and I get off earlier than the others because we're so close the bottom in the first place. I storm out of the doors, still seething at Cato and go to my room and slam the door behind me.

I shower all of the days sweat off of me and change into some sweat pants and a tank top. I let my hair down and brush it out leaving slight waves in my hair. I walk out to the dining room and ask an avox to get me some coffee. As I'm waiting for it, Cato comes walking out of his room. I pay no attention to him as he plops on the couch and turns on the TV.

The avox comes out with my drinks and I accept it, thank her and head to the end of the hall. I push open the door and walk up the eleven flights of stairs to get to the roof. I lean up against the edge of a railing looking down into a small pond and watch as the fish swim happily inside the water.

I'm so into watching the fish that I don't notice Cato come up. He stands next to me and doesn't say a word. I can tell he's tensed up about something by the way that he's standing. "What do you want?" I ask him plainly after a few minutes of silence. "To say I'm sorry" he replies. Well, that took me aback.

"I shouldn't have acted the way I did earlier. I just thought that if the other tributes saw me at a survival station, they would assume that I didn't know what I was doing, which would be true. All that I know is weapons and fighting and you were right, I did need to hear that. I was actually listening after you blew up at me. It was kind of interesting. So, you were right and I'm sorry."

I look up at him and see by his face that everything that he said was true. "It's ok, I forgive you." I say. As soon as I've said it, relief washes over his face and he doesn't stand so tense anymore. "Good" he replies with a smile "I didn't want there to be anything unresolved between us before the games." He finishes.

I nod and turn my attention back to the water. I suddenly shiver and realize how cold it is up here without a jacket. "Are you cold?" Cato asks urgently "Yeah, kind of. I think I'll head back inside." I say as I turn around about to head back to the stairwell. "No, wait." Cato says as he grabs my wrist. "Take my jacket" He says as he slips it off of his shoulders and onto me without me being able to react.

"Thanks" I say with a slight smile, but I feel bad because now he'll probably be cold. I glance over at him and see that he's only wearing a thin white t-shirt. His sculpted muscles are quite visible through it and when he crosses his arms to keep warm, I can't help but notice his impressive biceps. I allow myself to think about what it would be like if those arms held me.

I suddenly mentally slap myself for thinking that and turn away before he notices the blush that has started to creep onto my cheeks. Unluckily for me he does. "What?" he says with a raised eyebrow "Like the view?" he finishes with a smile that would make any other girl melt, but not me. I know he's just trying to get on my nerves. Well, two can play at that game. "Maybe" I say flirtatiously while giving him my best smile. "Whatever" he says with a chuckle. "Well, it's getting late, we should head down." I say.

He nods and follows me to the stairwell, but before I can open the door, he lunges forward and opens it before me. "Ladies first." He says with a hand gesture. I can't help the giggle that escapes me and kick myself mentally for acting so girlish and innocent. We walk down the stairs back to our rooms and stop in front of mine like last night.

Cato gets a look in his eye as he turns towards me and I know what's coming. "Well, see you in the morning!" I say quickly as I open my door and shut it behind me before Cato can act. I hear him groan as I'm walking toward my bathroom.

Was he disappointed? I didn't think he liked me that way. We're just best friends, aren't we? Wasn't he still messing with me? I should have played along and not chickened out. My thoughts are filled with questions like that as I go through the routine of showering, brushing my teeth, changing, and getting into bed.

The last thought that enters my head is "How bad would it be if I hadn't fled?" I realize the mistake I made and release my own groan upon realizing that I might actually like as more than a friend too."This could get complicated" I say to myself as sleep overtakes me.

**So, as always, reviews are appreciated. I'm still trying to decide if I should go with the book or have someone else survive (hint hint) Hmmm? Well, thanks for reading and being patient!**


	7. Chapter 7

**So, I actually updated on time! *Cheering and Applause* This chapter's 3,523 words so it's a little longer than the other ones. I hope ya'll enjoy it! DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Hunger Games**

"Clove? Clove!" somebody's yelling and banging on my door. I sit upright in my bed, gasping for breath and covered in sweat and feel like I've been crying. I glance over at my clock and see that it reads 2:17 a.m. The banging on my door continues. "What?" I say breathlessly. My door opens and Cato's giant figure, wearing only pajama pants, fills the doorway.

"I heard you screaming. Are you ok?" He asks with a worried expression on his face. "I don't know" I say in between breaths. Suddenly, my nightmare comes back to me, and I can't help the tears that begin to fall. Cato immediately notices and comes and sits next to me on my bed.

"You want to talk about it?" he asks quietly as he takes my hands in his. I nod slowly and begin to speak "We were in the games, and at the feast. I went after Firegirl, and was about to kill her when I was snatched off of her by something huge. It threw me on the ground and I get my first look of who it is. It turned out to be Thresh." I say quietly

"He picked up a huge rock and I got scared and called out for you, but you never responded. Before I knew it, he hit me on the temple with the rock. The last thing I remember is calling out for you and faintly hearing you before I black out." I finish as the tears come back and my body begins to shake with sobs. I don't know what's going on with me. I've never been this vulnerable and weepy before.

I look up to Cato, "I'm afraid to die" I say so quietly I don't think he heard me. I know he did though because he wraps me in his arms and silently kisses the top of my head as I continue to cry. I keep sobbing for another ten minutes until it begins to subside and I start to dose off. Cato notices and unravels his arms from around me, gently lies me down, and stands up and walks to the door.

"No! Wait." I say as I grab his arm. He turns towards me with a confused look on his face. "Stay with me?" I ask innocently. He looks taken aback for a few seconds until what I've said registers in his head. He walks back to me and lies down on the side opposite of me and crawls under the blankets. He opens his arms and I immediately go into them.

He wraps them around me and kisses my head again. I don't know how long it took, but I finally was lulled to sleep by the constant thudding of his heartbeat.

I wake up with a lot of weight sprawled on top of me. I open my eyes and see that it's Cato, who's taken up ninety percent of the bed and is snoring away peacefully. I'm a little alarmed at first, not remembering late last night but when I do, I relax. "Hey, big ton of bricks" I say to him, trying to wake him up. He just moans and goes back to sleep. "Cato!" I yell. "Hmm?" he mumbles a little bit more awake this time. "Would you mind getting off of me so I can go to the bathroom?" I ask.

"Oh, sorry" He mumbles groggily and rolls off of me enough to let me up and falls back asleep. I roll my eyes and walk towards the bathroom. I take a longer shower because it's so early and think about last night. What came over me? I've never cried that much before, in fact, I've hardly ever cried before.

All I could think of is how childish I was. That's definitely not how a Career should act. I turn off the water, towel off and realize that I forgot to bring clothes in with me. "Crap." I say to myself as I realize that Cato's probably still passed out on my bed. I crack the door, peek out and am relieved to see that he's still out cold and his back is to me now. I tiptoe out and to my dresser and as quietly as I can, open the drawers and pull out something to wear then, I practically run back to the bathroom. Once I'm dressed, I walk back out to the room and shake him awake.

"Go away. It's too early." He moans as he covers his face with the blankets, exposing his feet because he's so tall. I rip the blankets off of him and he almost lets out a noise that sounds like a velociraptor but in a deeper voice. "You monster" he says when he turns to face me. I shrug "It's time for breakfast and then training. Get out of bed." I demand.

"Make me" he says like a 3 year old with a pouty look on his face. "Fine" I say as I flip him off the mattress. I'm surprised I had that much strength to move him and he is too. He sits on the floor looking very confused and shocked. "Where'd you get so much muscle?" He asks jokingly as he stands up to his full height and looks down on me. I suddenly become aware of his exposed upper body and begin to blush again.

"I'm not exactly that little you know." I say up to him. "To me you are" he says cockily. That irritates me and without him expecting it, I throw a hard punch to his center of gravity that causes him to double over in pain. "Not now, huh?" I say over my shoulder as I strut out to the dining room confidently.

I drop down on the couch and wait for breakfast to be served. It's not long before Cato comes out and sits next to me and lays his arm across the top of the couch behind me. I look over and slightly up at him "Thank for staying with me last night." I say shyly, still irritated for being so vulnerable. "No problem" he says with his signature smile.

An avox rings a bell to signal that breakfast is ready. We walk over to the table, sit down and wait for Brutus and Enorbia to come. They finally make their appearance and sit down, slightly hung over again. We eat in silence and are about to go change into our training uniforms when Brutus speaks.

"You two, today you show off as best as you can. Use all of the weapons and be accurate. Show them who's gonna be in charge in the arena." He says with a slur. We both nod and head to our rooms to change. We ride down to the training center and are the first ones there. I simply sit down on the pedestal in the middle of the room and wait. Cato walks around all of the stations again and looks for any weapon he's never used before.

He obviously doesn't find any because he comes back to me without looking worried at all. I'm not surprised though; District 2 processes mainly weapons so we're trained with everything imaginable. But the little runts from Districts 8 thru 12 have probably never even wielded a weapon before.

The rest of the tributes arrive and we begin training. We don't have to listen to Atala again, which saves us about an hour of time. I decide to skip the knives for now and head over to the swords by Cato. I can't wield quite as big of a sword as him, but the one I'm using is pretty decent sized. We both work on a ring of dummies, slicing and stabbing our way through all of them, working back to back, until we're both panting.

"Ok, that's enough here for now." Cato says breathlessly as he observes our damage. The trainers wheel in more dummies for the next tributes as we put our swords back on the racks. "How about spears?" I ask him. "Sure, why not?" he says with a shrug. We stand in line and watch as helpless tributes attempt to at least hit the dummy when they throw the spear, all to no avail. The only one who does decent is Marvel, who's in front of us. But we don't have to be worried, he's already with us.

It's my turn first and I pick up a spear, heft it up in my hand, look at the target down the range, and as effortlessly as throwing knives, I send it flying into the dummy's heart. I take a bow as a small round of applause begins and walk to stand to the side while I watch Cato take care of his dummy with a spear to the head.

We walk over to the archery station and stand in line. I watch as Glimmer shoots an arrow towards a dummy, but barely nicks its arm. I attempt to stifle a laugh but don't succeed. She glares back at me and I look over at the knives and act like I didn't laugh. This time, Cato goes before me. The bow seems a bit small in his hands but he's still quite good with it. He gets an eight on the target. I go after him and get a nine, just beating him.

We go to the knives next. I know that this is Cato's weak point in weaponry, so I offer to go first. He gladly accepts, and watches intently as I crack my knuckles and roll my neck and back like before. It helps to loosen me up and get rid of any tension that could affect my accuracy.

I pick up five of the deadliest knives I can find and throw two of them at the first target; I finish the next one with a perfect bull's eye and send the last two knives flying at the same time towards the last dummies head. Cato knows that he can't top that, but looks at me cockily. He chooses three knives and simply tosses them at the targets, getting two eights and a nine on the last one.

He seems fine with it and walks over to me. "Not bad" I say. "Thanks, you're not too bad yourself" he says with a slight grin. The bell rings for lunch and we head to the cafeteria. We have lunch and nothing different happens from the day before, I just notice that Firegirl and the boy from her District seem to be having a good time. They keep laughing and smiling and it's starting to make me sick.

We finish lunch and head back into the gym. "Well, the only stations left are the obstacle courses and hand to hand combat." He says. "Well, the obstacle courses look pretty fun." I say while watching a few tributes on them. "Think you could beat me?" he asks proudly. "Ha! It'll be as easy as pie." I laugh as we walk over to the courses, sensing a competition coming on.

We walk up to an area that has many different levels of blocks to hop across as trainers swing at you with what look to be, padded spears. I hear one kid call this course, The Gauntlet. Cato goes before me and steps up onto the first block. A trainer asks if he's ready and he nods as he begins to move. He jumps, ducks and dodges his way across without getting knocked off once. He jumps down from the last block with a huge grin on his face.

"Beat that Shorty" he says, looking at his time of 1 minute and 26 seconds, still abusing of the fact that he's taller than me. "I think I will actually." I mumble as I put on my helmet and mount the starting block. "Ready" I say as I position my feet to move. I leap over the first gap and land on the second block just before a trainer swings at me.

I jump over his weapon swiftly and continue to move. I clear another three blocks before I'm targeted again. This time, I duck under the spear, and for extra measure, I ram myself into the trainer, causing him to fall off. I leap onto the next two blocks and can see the last one ahead, but just before I reach it, two trainers swing at me simultaneously.

I barely catch it in time and I jump up and practically do a flip onto the last block. I jump off, glance at my time and am very pleased to see that it reads 1 minute and 20 seconds. I jump off of the finishing block with an air of confidence as I walk over to Cato, get right up to his face and say plainly, "Beat you" as I walk away boldly.

We continue our little competition on the next couple of obstacles. There's a set of giant monkey bars that you have to cross, but you have to do it using two rings. I got three quarters of the way to the end and then my arms gave out. Cato, however, had no trouble at all and he beat me by default for not falling.

There was another that's like a big bridge over the gym, full of obstacles to jump over and crawl under, but you do it while the bride is rotating, causing the task to become slightly more difficult. Needless to say, I beat Cato on this one due to my agility, balance, and speed.

The last obstacle was a big weaving of ropes all along the walls and ceiling of the gym that you had to climb up, cross over and climb down without falling. I had a good bit of trouble getting up, but crossing and descending came quite easily and I drop at the end with a time of 3 minutes and 14 seconds. Cato goes next and doesn't have the least bit of trouble on any of it, finishing the whole thing in 2 minutes and 23 seconds.

"So, we're tied so far" He says a little breathlessly as he drops off of the ropes. "Yep, I guess the deciding factor will be the hand to hand combat." I reply. He nods and walks over to the large black mats on the floor with me following closely behind.

We're not allowed to fight each other because it's against the rules, but we can however, fight a trainer and Atala will score us on how we take our opponent down. Cato goes first and uses shear, brute strength to fight the trainer and has him pinned in less than a minute. I however, prefer to put on a bit of a show and dance around my opponent to confuse and disorient him. When I can tell that he's getting a little bit irritated, I decide to take him down easily.

I jump on him and he holds me on his back for a few seconds, but then collapses from the pressure that I've begun to place around his neck. I flip him over so he's on his back, straddle his waist and pin his legs with my knees and feet while I hold his arms above his head. No matter how hard he fights, he can't get me off of him. Atala calls the match after me holding him for 5 seconds and I get off of him and help him to his feet.

"Very nice" Cato whispers to me as Atala is deciding on the scores. "Thanks, you too" I whisper back. "Ok! I have a winner." Atala says as Cato and are eagerly listening. "The win goes to-"she pauses for effect I suppose. "Cato!" she yells and Cato jumps up with a hoot and fist punch into the air. While he's having his victory dance, I ask Atala why I didn't win.

"You put on a good show, and that's what the audience will want in the games, however, it just took too long for my personal taste." She tells me. "Oh, I got it." I say a little bit disappointed but I walk over to Cato to congratulate him. "Good job" I tell him with a hint of jealousy in my voice. "Thanks, Shorty." He says with a grin. I have a feeling that this nickname is going to stick with me for a while.

Just then, the dismissal bell rings and we all file into the elevator to go back to our floors. This time, the ride's different. I actually have a conversation with Marvel as Glimmer's still trying to flirt with Cato. Marvel isn't that bad, actually, he's quite funny plus I saw what he can do with a spear. I have a feeling he'll make the games a little bit more enjoyable.

He and Glimmer get off first and it's not long before Cato and I step off too. I can almost feel the sighs of relief from the other tributes as we get off, but who said that was a bad thing? I go to my room and quickly shower and change my clothes for dinner, and I actually put some of the perfume from my bathroom that doesn't smell too awful.

I walk out and take a seat next to Cato at the table. Dinner is some kind of beef served with gravy and roasted vegetables. I think they call it pot roast and it's quite good so I help myself to seconds as Brutus starts talking.

"Your gamemaker sessions are tomorrow; do you have any idea about what you'll be doing?" he asks with his mouthful of meat. I swallow what's in my mouth and say, "I was planning on showing off all of my knife tricks." "That'll be fine" Enorbia says "What about you Cato?" she asks him. "Oh, I'll probably just chop up a bunch of dummies." He says plainly as he puts another piece of meat in his mouth.

"Eh, you'll do fine, kid." Brutus tells him gruffly. "You both will make at least an eight just for knowing how to use a weapon." Enorbia says confidently."Although, a nine or a ten could get you some more sponsors, not that I've already gotten you a bunch or anything." She adds. "Well, that's a relief." I say before I take a swallow of water. "Mmhmm" Cato nods with his mouth full. We finish dinner, and then Cato and I head to the living room while Brutus and Enorbia head out to get us more sponsors.

Cato plops on the couch and drapes his arm across the back, controlling the remote with the other. Since it's a small couch, I have no choice but to sit right next to him. He turns on some old movie about superheroes or something, and it's pretty good. It's really long though and I begin to fall asleep three quarters of the way through. By the credits, I'm conked out, using Cato's chest as a pillow.

"Hey, hey" He says as he shakes me, trying to wake me up. I moan and open my eyes, realizing that he's been my pillow. "Sorry" I mumble as I pick my head up. "It's ok" he says with a wink. I roll my eyes and stand up, stretch and pop my back. I'm thirsty and I ask an avox for something to drink, and he brings me a glass of water not 30 seconds later.

I finish it and head towards my room, dreading the thought of having another nightmare again. I shower and put on pajama shorts and an over sized t-shirt, and just as I'm getting into the bed, someone knocks on my door. I open it to find Cato standing there, in pajama and surprisingly, a t-shirt. "You gonna be ok tonight?" he asks concerned. "I'm not sure" I say nervously, looking at the floor, wanting him to stay with me, but being too ashamed to say it.

He reads my mind and steps inside my room, closing my door, pulling his t-shirt over his head and hopping into my bed, as I stand there motionless. "Well, you coming or not?" he asks jokingly while patting the spot next to him. I let out a small sigh of relief and walk over to join him; very glad I don't have to sleep alone. I climb in next to him and get comfortable as he lays his arm out behind my head, creating a makeshift pillow. I lay on my right side and rest my head on his arm, which is big enough to practically be like my own pillow.

He scoots closer to me and wraps an arm around my waist protectively and pulls my back right up to his chest and I can feel his heartbeat and toned muscles through the thin material of my t-shirt. I flick off the lights and he gently kisses the top of my head before I fall asleep to the sound of his steady breathing in my ear.

** Alright, there you have it! Reviews are welcome and appreciated! Have a great week!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright, once again, i'm late. I'm sorry! But anyways, here it is! DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games**

I wake up in the middle of the night to find that once again, I've been crying, my breathing is labored and I'm sweating. I look over at Cato and he's sleeping soundly, he's even snoring a little bit. I carefully lift his arm off of me and slide slowly out of bed while trying not to disturb him. I walk over to the bathroom, shut the door behind me and strip down.

I turn on the shower as hot as it will go and step right in and realize that I'm shaking. I try to get a hold of myself as I wash all of the sweat and tears off of my face and body. Even though I'm all clean, I stay in the shower for what feels like ages. I eventually get tired of standing up and just sit right down on the floor and let the water block out my vision and thoughts.

I just listen to the water until I've finally stopped the shaking of my body and am ready to go back to bed. I pull myself off of the floor, turn off the water and step out of the shower. I allow the built in dryers to dry me this time because I'm too exhausted to do it myself. I tiptoe back into my room and silently open my drawer and put on fresh pajamas.

I lay back down next to Cato and he instinctively pulls me right up to him in his sleep. I just listen to him breath and the sound of his heartbeat as I try to fall back asleep. The lack of sleep eventually wins out and I'm pulled back into the darkness of my dreams.

I'm woken up by the sun and Cato is, once again, on top of me but I just let him stay there and wait for him to wake up. He eventually does and looks down at me and smiles. "Good morning" he mumbles as he wipes his eyes getting adjusted to the sunlight. "Morning" I reply back, waiting to see how long before he realizes that he's slowly squeezing the air out of me.

"Did you sleep well?" I ask him with what little breath I have left. "Oh! Sorry!" He exclaims as he realizes what he's doing and rolls off of me. "Its fine" I say with a laugh. "Oh, and I slept very well. Thank you." He replies. "But you didn't. Did you?" he says while looking me over. "More or less" I shrug and look away from his gaze.

He puts both of his hands on either side of my face and gently forces me to look at him. "Why didn't you wake me?" he asks concerned. "I don't know" I shrug again. "You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn't want to disturb you." I finish.

"Hey, we're going to make a deal." He says stern but gently. "What kind of deal?" I ask cautiously. "You're going to wake me up whenever you have a nightmare." "But!" I start to interrupt. "No buts" he says while staring me right in the eyes. "Do you understand?" he finishes. I simply nod in response.

"Alright." He says as he pulls me into a hug. He lets me go after a few seconds and holds my head and kisses my forehead as he pulls away. "I'm going to go get ready in my room." He says. "And you should do the same" he adds as he glances at the clock. "Ok" I mumble as I pull myself up off the bed and walk to the bathroom.

I don't bother with a shower because I took one just a few hours ago. I do brush my teeth and splash some water on my face though. I study myself in the mirror for a few seconds and notice that I have very noticeable dark bags under my eyes. I sigh and look at all the different buttons on the wall to see if any will give me what I'm looking for.

I eventually find a pink one and press it. A robotic arm pops out with a tube of concealer in its hand. I take it and dab some of it under my eyes to hide the darkness, knowing that it makes me look slightly weaker and I can't have the other tributes thinking that I'm weak.

I walk back out to my room and pull out my training uniform from my dresser and put it on. I'm pulling on my boots as I attempt to walk down the hall to breakfast. I plop down next to Cato and fill the biggest cup I can find full of coffee. I have it chugged before we even begin eating. I eat nothing more than an omelet and some fruit.

I'm busy working on my third cup of coffee when Cato stands up "You ready to go?" he asks. I finish the rest of what's in the mug and nod and head towards the elevator. I'm silent as we ride down to training but I know I'll have to start putting on an act so as to not look weak and tired.

Luckily, the caffeine kicks in and I'm not as exhausted as we start training. We wield some more swords, throw some more knives, beat up some more trainers and fly through the obstacle courses before we're called to lunch.

Once again, we file into the cafeteria and receive our food then sit down at the tables. This time, I'm stuck between Marvel and the District 4 boy. I think his name was discuss the alliances that we want to form and when we're going to form them.

Cato is supposed to talk to Thresh before he goes into his session and I'm supposed to talk to the boy from District 3 on the interview night. We finish our food and sit and wait for our names to be called to go into our gamemaker sessions. Marvel is called in first, followed by Glimmer a few minutes later.

I'm busy wondering what on earth her skill is; she's probably going to flirt with all of the male gamemakers. Cato is called next and he stands up confidently and walks towards the sliding doors back to the gym. "Hey, good luck." I say to him as he walks in "You too" he replies as he disappears.

It takes him a little bit longer than the others, but my name is finally called. I take a deep breath and walk through the doors. I see that they have some targets set up for me already. They must have been watching me during training.

I pick up as many knives that I can carry and tuck them into my clothing anywhere that they'll stay. I even put two of the small ones into my ponytail. I begin by throwing 5 knives while standing at the line of the range, and then I decide to get a little fancier. I start throwing behind my back and with my left hand, still achieving perfect hits.

As I'm throwing, I'm trying to think of a big finale. I look over at the wall and see the climbing net and I get an idea. I take 2 more knives and tuck them into my boots, and I begin to climb the net. I get about 12 feet up and turn around to locate my targets. I take a mental picture of where they're located and close my eyes so I don't forget.

I take a deep breath and back flip off of the net and I send the two knives flying simultaneously into the dummies in mid air. I land firmly on my feet and take a bow as the gamemakers applaud. I walk back to the elevator with a very confident and proud smile on my face.

I ride the short distance up to our floor and step out to be flooded by my mentors and Kish. "How'd you do?" Kish squeals excitedly in my ear, practically rupturing my eardrum. "Fine I suppose." I say as I rub the ear he shrieked into. "I'm sure they loved you!" Enorbia says while gleaming. "You'll get a good score for sure." Brutus says gruffly as he slaps me on the shoulder.

I notice Cato sitting on the couch by himself and walk over to join him. "How did yours go?" I ask cheerily. "Not bad" he says with a smirk. "I bet I beat you though" he finishes with a grin. "Oh, well we'll see about that later on won't we?" I return cockily. In my head I know that he probably did pull a bigger score than me, but a girl can hope can't she?

The rest of our afternoon is spent watching TV, spitting off of the balcony to see if we can hit anyone below, and taking a nap on the roof. When we finally wake up, it's dinner time, and when we walk downstairs, everyone is waiting on us to eat.

"Sorry, lost track of time." Cato says bluntly as he takes a seat. I silently sit down next to him just as dinner starts being served. We have a five course meal consisting of various vegetables and bread, meat that tasted like a combination of pig and cow, fruit that I've never seen before, and two desserts. The fruit is actually pretty good and I ask an Avox for another serving.

I'm just about finished when Kish yells from the living room that they're about to announce the scores. We all gather on the couches and are sitting on the edge of our seats in anticipation. Suddenly, the capitol anthem plays as the seal of Panem flashes on screen for a few minutes. Back home and in all of the Districts, this would be a required program to watch so that's why they flash the anthem for a few minutes so that they get everybody's attention.

Finally, Caesar Flickerman appears onscreen in his midnight blue wig and dazzling suit. "Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen! Earlier this afternoon, our tributes for the 74th Annual Hunger Games had private sessions with the gamemakers. We are about to reveal the scores given to the tributes based on their performances." He says excitedly.

"First, we have Marvel, from District 1 with a score of 9!" he shouts. "Now we have Glimmer, also from District 1 with a score of 9 as well!" he finishes and I snort knowing that I was probably right about her skill. "Next, Cato, from District 2. And Cato pulls a" he pauses for effect and Cato is almost falling off of his seat. "10!" Caesar shouts and Cato lets out an excited "Whoo!"

"Also from District 2, we have the Lovely Clove." He says as I'm biting my nails and I have my knees pulled up to my chest. "Clove has a score of, 10!" he finishes. "Yes!" I shout as I fist pump the air. "Good job you two!" Enorbia says with excitement. "Your sponsors just multiplied by twenty fold!" Brutus says as he glances at his phone that just beeped. "Thanks" I say with a grin from ear to ear. I knew that they liked me, but a ten is fantastic!

We turn our attention back to the screen and watch the other scores being announced. The rest are averaging around the 5 range. We're all surprised when the little girl from District 11 gets a 7 and her teammate gets a 9. "Did you ever talk to him Cato?" I ask. "Yeah, and he turned me down, but it's his loss. Just another kill." He replies with a shrug.

The tributes from District 12 are last and I'm expecting to see like 3's and 4's, but lo and behold, the boy gets an eight. "Eight!" Cato exclaims. "Thinking about letting him in?" I ask "Yeah, I was toying with the thought before because he could lead us to the girl, but now, definitely." He says with a nod. "Alright, you talk to him before the interviews. And make sure the girl isn't around." I finish and Cato nods ion response.

"Finally, from District 12, Katniss Everdeen with a score of" Caesar looks down at his paper and does a double take. "11!" he shouts. "What!?" Cato erupts as he jumps off of the couch. "How did she, of all people, get an 11?!" "But she's so measly and puny!" I exclaim in disbelief. "Well, one thing's for sure" Cato growls. "She's definitely not getting in with us." He finishes. "Good. I'm going to kill her myself." I say with a smirk.

We finally calm down enough to head to bed. I repeat the routine yet again, plop on the bed and wait for Cato. I wait 20 minutes and he still hasn't come in, so I get up and peek into the hall to make sure the coast is clear before heading into his room. I crack open his door and look to find him sitting on his bed staring into nothingness.

I step inside and close the door behind me with a click and walk over to sit next to him. "You ok?" I ask as I sit down. "Yeah, just thinking." He replies not taking his eyes off of the window. "Thinking about what?" I ask as I take his hand to try to get him to look at me. "You know what." He says solemnly. I do know, but I just don't want to think about it at all.

Only one of us can come home. And now I'm getting too attached and I can tell he is too and that's not what we need right now at all. "Hey" I say as I take hold of his face and turn him to look at me as his blue eyes pierce into my soul. "Don't worry about it right now, ok?" I say quietly. He nods gently and pulls my forehead to his lips to kiss me.

He pulls back and lies down, taking me with him. I pull the blankets onto us and I snuggle up next to him to get comfortable. He pulls me into his chest in a hug and rests his chin on the top of my head. I place my hands gently on his chest and close my eyes as I drift off to sleep feeling his heartbeat.

**Ok, ya'll know the drill! Please review! Thanks for reading and have a great week!**


	9. Chapter 9

"Oh my goodness, Cato! What are you doing in here?!" Kish whispers loudly when he comes in to wake me up. "Um, sleeping?" Cato mumbles as he shifts closer to me and pulls the blanket up to his neck not noticing that I'm awake and listening to the whole thing.

"Well, I can see that! And what's so wrong with your bed that you can't sleep in it?" he shrieks again. "Nothing, It's just cold alone." He says with tired sarcasm and I feel his smirk on my hair. I mumble and shift around a little as to give a warning that I'm going to "wake up" to maybe get Kish out of the room.

I hear Kish jump as I move and he whispers hoarsely to Cato "Brutus and Enorbia are going to kill you both when they find out about this!" he finishes and is about to storm out of the room until Cato stops him. "No, wait!" he whispers as loudly as he dares, still believing that I'm asleep.

"What?" Kish hisses back. "Don't tell anyone, please. This is the only way she gets sleep. She has terrible nightmares and for some reason, they don't happen when I'm here." He pleads. He must have hit Kish's soft spot, "Aw, I had no idea…" he starts to reply sadly but fades out. "Yeah, so, just between you and me?" Cato asks sweetly.

"Well…" Kish starts but Cato interrupts "Please?" he pleads and I know Kish's a goner. "Well, okay. If it's the only way she'll sleep…she's going to need all that she can get." he gives in. "Thank you so much" Cato whispers and I can barely hold back the smile that's threatening to spread across my face due to Kish's vulnerability.

"Just make sure that you don't both come to breakfast at the same time. It'll raise suspicions. But don't be late! You have one hour." He warns him on his way out the door. "Got it, thanks a million, Kish." Cato says he walks out the door and he snuggles back next to me and pulls me closer to him. I doze back off for another half hour or so but eventually, Cato wakes me up by snoring.

"Cato, Cato!" I say trying to wake him up. "What? What's going on?" he asks groggily and disoriented. "It's time to get up and go eat" I tell him knowing that my voice can't penetrate through the thick cloud of sleep still in his head. He mumbles something that sounded like "you go….be there in a minute" but it's barely audible.

I look at the clock and it shows that it's 7:30 am. I shrug and decide it's probably better and take Kish's advice so I head to the bathroom and get cleaned up. I get dressed in a pair of gym shorts and sneak into Cato's room and steal one of his t-shirts, loving how big and comfy they are. I walk back into my room and pull my hair up into a ponytail, then walk down the hall to the dining room.

Brutus and Enorbia are sitting at the table already and Kish's telling one of the avoxes something. I slid into one of the empty seats on one side of the table and wait for breakfast to be served. We sit for a good 10 minutes before Brutus gets fed up and stands up to go get Cato, but I stop him and say I'll do it.

"Whatever, just go and get him" he says as he waves me off. I walk down the hall and step into my room but Cato isn't there so I look into his room but still see nothing however, I hear the sound of running water. I walk over the bathroom door and it's slightly cracked open and I peak inside to see Cato standing in front of the sink, brushing his teeth, but he's soaking wet and in just a towel.

I feel the blush start to rise up in my cheeks and quickly try to focus on the task at hand and knock on the door. "What?" he says with a gurgle due to the toothpaste but opens the door and stands over me. I immediately feel small, which isn't a feeling I get often because of my height, but can't help it because he's almost a head taller than me.

I'm eye level to his prominent chest muscles and swallow hard as I pull my gaze up to his face. "Breakfast is ready and everyone's waiting on you." I say as boldly as I can, still embarrassed of the situation I'm in and wishing I'd just let Brutus do this. "Oh, ok. Hang on, I'll get dressed and be down there in 2 minutes he says and shuts the door.

I walk back out to the dining room trying to fan away the blush that's still in my cheeks and luckily, I'm successful. I sit back down and inform the rest that he's coming just as he strides into the room. We eat our meal and discuss what our day will consist of. We have our live interviews tomorrow but we need to learn "how to work the crowd" as Kish says; and then, we, but mainly I have to learn etiquette skills and how to walk in 5 inch high heels.

When we're finished, Brutus takes Cato one way, while Enorbia and Kish take me the other. We sit in my room and Kish begins explaining the basic etiquette skills that I'll need to know, such as, how to sit properly, to always smile, to look Caesar in the eye when I answer him, but to also make eye contact with some of the audience members.

We work on that for about an hour until Enorbia informs us that it's time for me to learn how to walk in high heels and how to carry myself in an evening gown. She puts me in a black floor length gown and 5 inch heels, or so she says. I practice walking back and forth without tripping, and after 20 minutes of being scolded for shuffling my feet, slouching and hiking up my dress when I walk, I finally get the hang of it.

Once that torture is over, Enorbia has me stand in the bathroom while she calls my name and I have to walk across my room to the two chairs she has set up, while smiling and waving to the imaginary crowd without stumbling in my newly acquired skills. Finally, after what seems like a century, but is only 2 hours, Enorbia seems pleased enough to allow me to get changed back into my clothes and wait for Brutus to come and get me to discuss my interview strategy.

I head back into my bathroom and fling off these accursed shoes to discover that blisters have formed on my heels and on either side of my toes. I groan and strip off the dress and pull on my shorts and slip on Cato's shirt again as I walk out to my room and collapse on my bed

My stomach rumbles and I glance at the clock on the nightstand next to my bed and it reads 12:15. I decide it's time for lunch and head to the dining car to see everyone sitting at the table eating already. "Why didn't anyone come and get me?" I whisper to Cato because everyone else is talking. "I did" he says to me without looking up from his food. "I never heard or saw you." I tell him. "I saw you." He replies with a mischievous smirk.

It takes me a few seconds to register what he said but when I do, I smack his arm hard and roll my eyes when he attempts to look injured.. "What? All I saw was you coming out of the bathroom and laying down on your bed!" he says in his defense. "Well then, what was the smirk for?" I ask him irritated. "Nothing, just seeing how you'd respond." He says through a mouthful of food with a smile. I roll my eyes and serve myself some lunch.

We finish and Brutus and I head back to my room and sit back in the chairs that Enorbia moved to the middle of the room. "So, what's your strategy going to be?" he asks me, thinking that I've actually thought this far ahead. "I have no clue." I tell him bluntly. "Well, I do. It's quite simple, just be fearless and dangerous while adding a little bit of flirtation and cockiness. And maybe a little brutality." He tells me simply. "Um, ok? And just how do I go about doing that?" I ask him, still clueless.

He lets out a big sigh "This is going take longer than I thought. Cato was much easier. We were done in 45 minutes." He says, slightly irritated. "Well, I'm sorry for being and inconvenience." I say sarcastically, already wanting this to be over with. Surprisingly, it only takes me about 2 hours to master the angle that Brutus created for me. He asks me a series of question similar to the ones that Caesar Flickerman will be asking me and coaches me through how to answer them.

I sound confident and relaxed yet still deadly and flirtatious, like we, or he planned. "Well, not too shabby kid." Brutus tells me after I answer his last question as he stands up and stretches. "So, what do I do now?" I ask him. "Nothing, just spend the rest of the day how you want to. Just make sure you don't get drunk or anything." He says sarcastically as he heads to the bar. "Good advice." I mumble as I watch him leave.

I walk to the living room and plop down on the sofa and turn on the TV. I scroll through the channels, finding nothing that's of any interest to me until I notice something that's being shown on a lot of the stations. They're replaying former Hunger Games. I hesitate whether to watch them or not until Cato suddenly jumps over the back of the couch and sits right next to me and puts his arm on the top of the couch.

"What are you watching?" he asks me "Nothing, just debating if I want to watch the other Games or not." I reply. "Well, it would be a good idea to develop a strategy and maybe see how some of the mentors communicate with all of their tributes." He says as he gently takes the remote from my hands and turns the program on.

We watch the recaps of the 20 most recent Games and take note of the different arenas, hazards, and Mentor strategy until it's time for dinner. Cato and I mainly listen as Kish gushes about how well we're doing with sponsors and the odd boards while Enorbia talks on her phone, getting us even more sponsors. Brutus seems to be slightly drunk and just stares at his plate, pushing his food around but never eating any of it.

We finish eating around 8:30 and I decide to head to bed because it's going to be a very long day tomorrow and I probably won't sleep tomorrow night so I'm going to try to get all of the sleep that I can get. I head to my bathroom, get in the shower and just let the water drown out my thoughts. I blindly push buttons and get covered in soaps and scrubs leaving me smelling like some kind of fruit when I get out.

I dry off and head into my room to get my pajamas but stop short when I see Cato sitting on my bed waiting for me. "Cato!" I yell as I duck behind the bathroom door trying to cover myself because I'm only wearing very small towel from the bathroom that hardly covers my rear end. "What?" he asks innocently "You know full well what! Close your eyes so I can get my clothes!" I say and he reluctantly obeys as I quickly walk to my dresser and grab pajama pants and a tank top. I go back to the bathroom and shut the door and get dressed.

I walk back out to my room, ready to yell at Cato but he isn't there when I come out. I walk to my door and poke my head out into the hall looking for him but he's nowhere to be found. I walk back to my bed and lie down and read one of the capitol magazines that were in the drawer until he comes back in with two mugs of hot chocolate.

"What's that for?" I ask "Nothing, I just thought you might want some." He says as he hands me a mug and I know immediately that he's just trying to get my mind off of the subject that was at hand before. I really didn't care that much, he just surprised me. "Well, you were right" I say with a smile as I sip out of the mug that's in my hands.

We don't say anything, but just sit, drinking and looking out my windows at the city and celebrations that are still going on. I briefly see our faces flash on a billboard with a big number two in the middle before it moves on to the next tributes. I really don't even think about anything and I don't want to. I finish my hot chocolate and set my mug on the nightstand and Cato does the same.

Cato lies down and stares up at the ceiling, saying nothing. I know that he's thinking about something but I don't want to know what. I lie down next to him and he wraps his arm around my waist and kisses my head, lingering there longer than before sending a slight shiver down my spine. "You still mad?" he says into my hair. "Nah, it just surprised me is all." I tell him plainly.

"Ok, good." He says as he reaches over me to turn off the light. I snuggle up to him, vaguely aware of how natural this is becoming, but not thinking about it. "Night, Cato." I say into his chest. "Night, Clove." He says with one more kiss on my head, but this one causes me to think of other things, like what his lips would feel like on mine, but I immediately push that thought out of my mind and I drift off to sleep.


	10. AUTHOR'S NOTE: PLEASE READ! :)

Ok, I'm sorry if I got your hopes up about this being an update…I personally hate when people do that. It's like opening a bag of chips and getting just air…Anyway, I just had to tell ya'll this; I'm so super excited about the reviews I've gotten! I never saw them until ***just*** now and they're from like months ago! Ya'll are awesome, just saying. I really appreciate all of the reviews and favorites and I promise (cross my heart) that I will have the next chapter ready sometime in the next 2 weeks! I've started it but I have insane writer's block..:/ Anyway, Thanks so much for sticking with me and being patient!

**Starsriseandsing:** I'm 75% sure that I'll let them live but I still feel kinda weird about contradicting the book. Oh well, guess you'll just have to wait and see!

**KittyKat1399:** Thanks for your feedback! I'm still deciding on how to end it as I said above. But thanks for the encouragement!

**Red Velvet is love:** Thanks so much!

**Lover53:** Thanks so much for your support!

**Guest from 8/11/12:** Well, uh, this is kinda a Cato **AND** Clove story (hint hint) be patient

Oh! And if I can get more than 20 followers within the next 2 weeks, I'll throw in another chapter for ya'll :D And don't forget to message me any ideas or comments!


	11. Chapter 10

**Ok guys! Chapter 10! Remember, 20 followers by May 14th will get you a double update! So, grab your friends and pull them on over here! Enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games**

I wake to the noise from the crowd practically right outside of the window. They're chanting the names of various tributes and cheering when the odds of their favorite go up. I try to shift around but Cato's arm draped across my stomach has me pinned. "Cato, wake up" I whisper and he stirs a little bit. I reach down and grab his arm trying to move it, only to have him tighten his grip more.

"Where do you think you're going?" he groans still not removing his arm. "Um, to take a shower. We need to get up." I reply. He sighs and puts even more weight on me. "Not yet, we still have time. We don't have anything to do until noon." He says as he begins to drift back to sleep.

I glance over at the clock to see that it's only 5:45 am. I shrug my shoulders and think to myself 'why not?' I haven't slept in in almost a year due to my rigorous training schedule. I roll back over so I'm facing the wall and Cato pulls me up to his chest and kisses my head yet again. Boy, this is kind of getting to be a regular thing. I fall back to sleep in no time.

I wake back up with a start with Cato yelling "No! Clove! Clove!" and thrashing around. "Cato, Cato!" I almost yell as I shake his shoulders in an attempt to wake him up. He wakes with a gasp and sits straight up and immediately looks at me to see if I'm still here. "Oh, gosh." He mumbles under his breath as he runs his fingers through his messy blond hair.

I slowly rub circles on his back until he's calmed down enough to talk to me. "What happened?" I whisper to him. He shakes his head and pulls at his hair some more not looking me in the eye. "Cato" I say firmly as I take his face in my hands and force him to look at me. He looks me right in the eyes and I see something I've only seen once and even then, it wasn't like this. Cato has true fear in him.

He still doesn't say anything and pulls me into an air constricting hug. "It's ok. Shhh, it's ok. It's just a nightmare." I whisper in his ear as I smooth his hair at the base of his neck trying to calm him. "It was so real though" he mumbles into my neck. "Do you wanna talk about it?" I ask him patiently. "No, not yet." He whispers and we stay just the way we are for a few more minutes.

The whole time, I'm partially in shock. Cato has never once showed fear or vulnerability except for that night on the train, I didn't really sense that as pure fear. Just as anxiety. He's always been solid and I have never once seen him like this. He slowly begins to loosen his grip on me and I know for a fact that I'll have bruises all over my waist. I don't mind, but I'm sure Nadab and my prep team will.

He pulls away and lies back down taking me with him. I lay my head on his extended arm and look up at him, willing him to speak. He does, but never looks at me. All that he does is stare up at the ceiling. "It was about you" he begins as he tightens his grip on me, still not fully convinced that I'm actually there. "We were in the games. You and I split up. You were on top of Fire Girl about to end it when you were yanked off by Thresh. You screamed for me as he threw you into the cornucopia. I frantically began running towards you as I heard you getting louder and louder.

I was almost to you when I heard a cannon go off and saw Thresh run off in the other direction. I looked up and saw you lying there with a bloody rock sitting by your head. The last thing I remember is screaming for you and then I woke up." He finishes breathlessly. I prop myself up on my arm and look down at him through some of my hair that's fallen down. "I swear, we will never, once be separated in that arena" he says quietly as he tucks my hair behind my ear.

As he speaks, I truly believe him and know that I'll make it pretty far in the games. The two of us together will be unstoppable. "I believe you." I say with a small smile as I lay my head back down to try to sleep for a few more minutes. Cato kisses my temple but never moves from that spot as we both fall back asleep.

I wake up about an hour later at about 8 o'clock and get up to shower. I take a little bit longer as my head is packed full of thoughts. Today is my last day of freedom, for a short time at least. I step out of the shower, towel off and brush my teeth as a machine dries and styles my hair. I walk back out to my room to get some clothes. I grab some sweat pants and a green tank top and quickly change into them before I wake Cato up.

"Hey, wake up" I say as I grab one of his feet that are sticking off of the end of the bed. He groans and rolls around before finally sitting up. He looks at me, runs his fingers through his hair, looks out the window then gets up and walks to my bathroom and shuts the door without saying a word.

I figured he would be this way. I knew he probably wouldn't want to talk about it because it would make him replay the incident in his mind. I sigh and sit down on my bed and wait for him to get done. After 10 minutes, he opens the door and is wearing nothing but a towel. I glance up and have to force myself not to stare at anything but his face. But, golly, he looks good. He's in the process of towel drying his hair and his chest.

I immediately realize that I'm staring at him again and clear my throat as I look back to the magazine I started to read. To my relief, he never says anything. "Um, Cato?" I say after a good five minutes of him standing in his towel. "Hmm?" He replies being snapped out of his thoughts. "How about putting on some clothes" I say to him. A smirk spreads across his face "Why? Do you find this distracting?" he says as he strikes a ridiculous pose. I immediately bust out laughing, both from shock and humor.

"How'd you know?" I reply sarcastically "Just a guess" he says over his shoulder with a wink as he heads out my door back to his room to change. I roll my eyes as he leaves but I'm glad to see he's back to his old self again. I finish up reading the page I was on and head out to breakfast, dreading the fact that my prep team will be here soon to poke and prod me to beauty once again.

**Please read and review! See ya'll on the 14th (hopefully with 2 more chapters)! :)**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11! Only 1 more until the games begin! Enjoy!**

My prep team enters into my room by barging through the door without even so much as a knock. "Well, come on in why don't you." I mutter sarcastically as I get up off my bed and walk to the bathroom where they've set up their equipment in record speed.

I sigh as I sit down in the chair and they begin to comb out my hair, file my nails, and pluck at my eyebrows.

When they're finished with that, my hair is put into rollers and I am submerged in a bath of sticky, smelly, green goo. I'm forced to sit in it for almost an hour, and then I'm rinsed off in the shower and dried.

I am then led to the waxing table like a sheep heading to the slaughter house. I firmly grip the table as every last bit of my hair is ripped out yet again.

Finally, after what seems like hours, I'm finally the hairless, naked mole rat my prep team wanted. They add polish to my nails and sit me back in a cooling bath to soothe my skin while they scurry out leaving me to wait for Nadab to come and fix me up the rest of the way.

I'm sitting up to my neck in a thick blue gel when I hear a knock. "Come in!" I yell, assuming that it's Nadab. I glance up, shocked to see Cato standing in front of me in his underwear. "Cato!" I shriek as I try to cover myself with the goo and my arms.

"What? Oh, sorry. I left my toothbrush here." He says with a smirk before strutting over to the sink and grabbing it.

I never even knew that it was there. "Thanks" he says with a wink as he exits the bathroom, still leaving me in shock. Shortly after, Nadab comes in and gets me out of the goo and has me shower yet again to get the gel off.

But, even though I've scrubbed my skin several times, I swear I'm still a blue tinted hue when I get out of the tub.

Nadab allows me to put on my robe as he begins working on my hair, taking it out of the rollers and gently combing it out.

He then takes a curling iron and strategically does my hair in different size curls. He then takes the top part of my hair and pins it up, leaving only a few curls at the front. He takes the hair that he pulled up and fashions it into what looks like a curly mess sitting just above the other hair, but what is really a very intriguing hairstyle.

He re-curls a few pieces of hair that came undone and then uses almost a whole can of hairspray on my head. Then, he moves onto my makeup, starting with the foundation and working up, however, he doesn't seem to be very stingy with the bronzer.

He puts a charcoal grey eye shadow on my eyes and then adds in some orange shadow on the outside and below my eyes.

He then adds black liner all around my eyes making the green and gold in my eyes stand out. He finishes my makeup with black mascara, blush and a light pink lip gloss.

He allows me to look at myself for a moment but then tells me to close my eyes to put on my dress. I comply and squeeze my eyes shut as he leads me back to my room to slip on my dress.

I take off my robe as he takes my gown out, then I feel something very tight, but lightweight slip onto me. He then tells me to step into something and I do as he says.

"Wow, this is really light" I say, thinking that he's done. "Oh, that's only the body shaping pieces!" he tells me as I feel what seems to be 50 pounds of dress slip onto my body. "Oh gosh!" I exclaim as I try my best to fall over from the weight.

Then, he helps me into my 4 inch heels and I feel myself grow taller instantly. After a few minutes of pulling and prodding, I am allowed to open my eyes. I look in the mirror to see myself in an orange, floor length, semi fitted, dress that flares out at my knees and has a dip in the neckline showing a little more than I would prefer.

"Wow" I whisper as I admire myself. "That's not all!" Nadab exclaims as he goes over to the bag the dress was in and pulls out a small box.

He opens it to reveal a small diamond necklace with matching earrings inside. "Turn around" he instructs me as he fastens the necklace behind me and puts the earring in my ears.

Then, I am finally complete, and I must say, I look pretty great. "Thank you so much!" I tell Nadab as I pull him into a hug. "You're going to have all of them at your feet tonight. You look stunning." He tells me with a smile.

He then offers me his arm and we walk out to the living area to head to the interviews with everyone else. On the way, I can't help myself from wondering what Cato is going to think. Is he going to love it? Hate it? Not say anything? "Gosh Clove, you're such a girl." I tell myself as I roll my eyes at my own thoughts.

We enter the living room, and I swear everyone looks right at me, even the avoxes and Brutus of all people.

Enorbia and my prep team smile proudly, as Brutus merely shakes his head with a small smile while Cato simply stares with his mouth slightly agape. I look at Cato and see that he looks quite nice himself in a greyish suit, white shirt and an orange tie to match my dress.

"Hey" I say as I walk over to him. "Hey" he responds as he clears his throat not taking his eyes off of me. "Do I look alright?" I ask questioningly as he continues to stare.

"What? Oh, yeah. You look really nice." He says as he snaps out of his thoughts and looks me in the eyes and smiles. "Thanks, you don't look too bad yourself." I say, returning his smile

"Gosh, his eyes are so gorgeous." I think to myself but then replace it with the thought I had of myself earlier. "Well, are we ready?" Enorbia asks us all.

We all respond and head towards the elevator. "May I?" Cato asks as he offers me his arm. I smile and accept it holding onto his firm bicep as we enter into the elevator. However, I don't let go of it and he doesn't seem to mind.

On the ride down, we are all silent but I notice Cato sneaking a few extra glances. Nadab notices this too and gives me a wink. I smile back at him and mouth 'thank you' again.

He smiles and nods, mouthing back 'you're welcome'. The elevator dings and I tighten my grip on Cato arm as we step out, suddenly unprepared for the attention I'm about to receive. Little do I know, we are the most beautiful, daring, and deadly couple here.

"Wait, did I just think of Cato and me as a couple?" I ask myself again. "Goodness, what's happening to you, Clove?" I think as I put on the best flirtatious, yet brutal smile I can.

**So, yeah, I've kinda stopped caring about getting more followers...so, instead, I've decided to make this the best that I can for all of my faithful followers who have stuck with me! (Even though I haven't been too speedy with the updates :/) Anyway! Thanks to all of you! You're who I write for and I would still greatly appreciate your feedback. I want to make this for ya'll, not just my own opinion. Love ya'll! :)**


	13. Chapter 12

**Ok guys, chapter 12! Now, I was just looking through all of the stats and stuff for this story, and I saw that it's gotten almost 2,000 views! So, I know there are more than 9 of you reading! Agh! And yes, I realize that's not 2,00 people, it's more like...oh dang...math...um...181 and 3/4 people? Close enough. The main fact is, I want to hear from you! Even just a little note or PM would be amazing! It made me so happy to see a review from a guest a few days ago (shout out to you by the way and to 'HugtheWholeWorld' for favoriting this story! Ya'll are amazing ;) ) That's what made me post this chapter sooner! They asked me to! that's all it takes folks...A little encouragement. :) Anyway, here ya go! DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games**

People are staring at us left and right. The other tributes are looking at us with envy and what almost seems to be fear. "You know, they're all staring at how amazing you look, right?" Cato says quietly into my ear. I look over to him and smile "No, they're looking at us. Wishing they could be us." I tell him back.

We get into our line to enter the stage but we still have a few minutes before we go out to the audience. Cato and I talk about the others, sometimes making fun of them, and sometimes complimenting them. We just don't let them hear it.

As we wait, I see Glimmer saunter over to us with her fakest smile yet, sashaying her hips and trying to get Cato to notice her. He looks up from me for a brief second to recognize her but then immediately turns back to me.

I have no clue why though, Glimmer looks pretty great herself, but in a way, slightly trashy. Her hair is in cascading waves down her back, while her makeup is bold, but tasteful. The only thing is her dress. It's gold, and quite fitted over her large chest and curvy figure but it's also see-through making her look like someone you'd find in a back alleyway.

She stands by us waiting for Cato to notice her, giggling and laughing while she hangs on his arm. Just the sight of her efforts makes me want to throw up. Cato is tolerating it, but still not acknowledging her.

I can tell that he's getting annoyed though, due to the fact that he's tensing up quite a bit and there's a vein in his neck that looks almost ready to burst.

Finally, after another giggle for Glimmer, he loses it. "Glimmer! Why the heck don't you take no for an answer! What gave you the thought that I would want to be with you when I have this amazing gorgeous girl standing right next to me?!" He yells loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear.

I look down at the floor; blushing because of the fact that Cato basically just publically announced that he likes me. Glimmer is taken aback and takes a few shocked steps away from Cato.

She eyes me up and down, almost with envy as she walks away, only to go back to her district partner and begin flirting with him. "So…"Cato says while looking very intently at the floor. "So…" I reply back, not sure what to say.

"Sorry about that" he says as he rubs the back of his neck, still not looking at me. "Sorry for what? The fact that you called me and I quote 'an amazing, gorgeous girl'" I ask him with a smirk "Yeah" he mumbles, obviously embarrassed. "Well, I never said I minded." I say with a smile. He looks up at me and smiles a big, goofy, boyish grin.

Just then, we are called onstage by Caesar Flickerman. We walk onstage in a single file line, starting with Glimmer and ending with Peeta. We take our seats and Glimmer is called up to the front by Caesar who stands, takes her hand and kisses it while she giggles for the umpteenth time tonight.

He guides her to the empty guest seat by him up front and begins by asking her a series of questions. She answers them very politely but also very flirtatiously as she sinks at the crowd and blows kisses to random audience members.

Finally, she is seated back in her seat at the end of the row and her District partner, Marvel, is next. He plays it off as a care free, likeable kind of guy. He answers all of the questions politely while throwing in a joke anywhere he can to make the audience laugh and side with him.

I feel my pulse begin to rise slightly as Caesar stands Marvel up and announces him again as he walks back to his seat. "Remember your act" Cato says into my ear discretely. He knows that I hate speaking in public and the thought of it makes me almost nauseated.

"Now, our next tribute is from District 2. Give a warm welcome to Clove!" Caesar exclaims as I stand up and, as gracefully as I can, walk to the front. The audience cheers and applauds, most likely because they remember me from the opening ceremonies.

Caesar takes my hand, kisses it like Glimmer's, and guides me to the empty seat across from him. "So, Clove, are you excited for this year's games?" he asks me as I get settled. "Yes, very much so!" I say with as much enthusiasm I can muster.

"What are you looking the most forward to?" he questions again. I think back to Brutus's advice, 'Be confident'. "Well, the victor's tour of course!" I tell him and earn a laugh from the audience as well as a few cheers.

"What is your strategy going to be at the Cornucopia?" he asks me with intrigue in his eyes. "I can't tell you!" I joke at first "But, I will let the others know, that I will show no mercy when it comes time." I say with a smirk, noticing that a few small tributes shudder with fear. "Perfect" I think as I continue to smile.

"One final question, you look simply stunning tonight, and I'm sure that every one of these boys behind us has noticed it by now" he starts as the crowd chuckles "tell me, is there anyone special that you have rooting for you to win and go home to?" he finishes as the room suddenly goes silent.

"Well, I do as a matter of fact. However, I don't feel the need to disclose his name just yet. Perhaps I will when we meet again in a few weeks." I finish with a sweet, flirtatious, almost girly giggle. "Well, I look forward to that then!" Caesar finishes. "Let's have a big round of applause for Clove!" he shouts as I smile and wave at the crowd all the way back to my seat as I mentally go through Brutus's list in my mind. Confident? Check. Relaxed? Check. Flirtatious? Check. Deadly? Check. "Well, that was easy" I think to myself.

**I know, I know. I said this would be the last chapter before the games...well, I felt like this was good just on it's own. I promise, only one more after this! And now, I have a proposition for ya'll. If 25 of you review by Friday night at 8 pm (Just so I know you're reading) I will post the next chapter at 9pm. All you have to do is let me know you are there! It's that easy. But if not, you'll just have to wait until next Wednesday...lo ciento mi amigos! I still love ya'll though :)Have a great weekend!**


	14. Chapter 13

**Ok, ok, I decided to finally update because I could hear the pitchforks sharpening and the torches being lit before the mob came. So, here ya'll go! I made this one a little longer because I had to to fit everything in to keep it one chapter. Hope ya'll enjoy! (Look for your shoutouts at the bottom :) ) Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games**

I get comfortable in my seat as Caesar announces Cato. He stands up and confidently struts to the front as the women in the crowd cheer extra loud when he winks towards a section at the front of the stage. He sits down, and answers Caesar's questions very straight forward.

He is asked about how prepared he is for the games and he answers cockily "I'm prepared, I'm vicious, and I ready to kill." This response earns some cheers from the men in the room, rooting on the most popular male tribute, or so I've been told by Enorbia.

I'm the second most popular female tribute, according to our stat boards. I'm right behind that skinny, little twig from District 12. And the only reason for that is because she beat me in the game maker sessions.

I zone out for most of the remaining parts of Cato's interview until Caesar asks him the same question he asked me. "I'm sure that all of these ladies have noticed by now how handsome you are Cato, but, is there a special, lucky lady rooting for you to win so that you can return home to her?" Caesar asks him.

"Well, as a matter of fact…there is." Cato says and half of the women in the room sigh, although I'm not sure if it's out of disappointment or not. "Care to elaborate? Or are you keeping it secret like your District partner?" Caesar asks teasingly. "I think I'll go along with Clove for now." Cato says with a wink.

I briefly wonder about this girl that he's talking about, but decide to just ask him later. "Ladies and gentlemen, Cato!" Caesar shouts as he raises Cato's hand up in the air before Cato walks back to his seat by me.

For the rest of the interviews, I'm too busy trying to figure out who the girl Cato was talking about is. I run names through my head, but none of them were ever very close to Cato. But, the more I think of it, the thought of him being with someone else makes me mad.

"Who the heck is this girl? What makes her so special to him? Is she the reason he's trying so badly to go home?" These and more questions run through my head enough to make me dizzy. Finally, I've had enough of it and just ignore any other thoughts I have about the subject.

I turn my attention back to the interviews just in time to hear the end of Peeta's last question. "So, tell us Peeta, do you have any special girl waiting for you to come back home?" Caesar asks him. "No, not really." Peeta answers shyly, looking at anything but the crowd and Caesar. "Oh, surely, a handsome lad like you must have a girl. Come on, tell us." Caesar tries prying harder.

Finally, Peeta gives in. "Well, there is this one girl I've had a crush on forever. But, I don't think she even knew I existed until the reaping." He says sadly. "Well, I'll tell you what you do." Caesar begins as he leans in closer and acts like he's telling Peeta a huge secret.

"You go in, win this thing, and when you go home, she'll have to date you. Huh? What about that hey?" He finishes excitedly while the crowd cheers. Suddenly though, they become silent as they notice the expression of sadness on Peeta's face. "I don't think that's going to work….because, you see…" he starts.

"She came here with me." He finishes as the crowd draws in a sharp breath and a few people let out small cries. The cameras suddenly turn to Katniss who has a confused, then suddenly angry expression on her face.

"Oh, well that is a disappointment, isn't it…"Caesar fades out. "It is" Peeta agrees sadly. "Well, Peeta, I wish you the best of luck. And, may the odds be ever in your favor." Caesar says as he stands up and shakes his hand before saying goodnight to the cameras and audience while we're all escorted off of the stage.

I don't get a chance to see what goes on between the two from District 12 though, because they are immediately ushered up to their room before anyone else can get onto the elevator with them. Cato and I catch the next one and ride up in silence to be greeted by a beaming Enorbia and pleased looking Brutus.

"You two did fabulous!" Enorbia exclaims as she hugs me while Brutus pats Cato on the back. "Um, thanks." I say as I try to release myself from her grip. I glance over at Cato and see that he's focused on something other than all of us right now, and I realize that it's probably that girl he has back home. Suddenly, I get so angry, I have to excuse myself and I storm down the hall to my room without even saying goodnight to anyone.

I slam my door shut and slide down in a crumple of a mess. I'm actually shocked that I begin to cry. "How could you do this to yourself? You knew you didn't have a chance. Just because you've been friends for as long as you remember doesn't mean he can't see other girls." I say to myself as I feel as though my heart has been torn.

I feel pain, bitterness and jealousy, but most of all, betrayal. Cato led me on this whole time, thinking I was someone special to him, only to turn around and slam it in my face. I decide then, that I don't' want anything to do with him at all anymore.

I can get along just fine on my own in the arena. I will go home. I will be District 2's lone victor and I will bring my family honor. If that means killing Cato in the process, then so be it.

I manage to regain some composure and take a quick shower, washing off my puffy, red face with cool water. I change into pajamas and climb into bed, hoping I can at least get a little sleep before tomorrow. It's no surprise to me though that at 1:30 am, I'm still wide awake.

I wander around the apartment for a while, then decide to go on up to the roof for some air. I open the door only to see the last figure I want to see right now leaning over the railing of the roof, looking down into the street.

I realize that he probably hasn't heard me yet, so I turn around slowly and reach for the doorknob, but he speaks before I can go away. "Hey, can we talk?" he asks innocently. "No, you have nothing to say to him." I tell myself as I turn the knob.

"Please?" he asks again and this time is facing me.

I slowly walk over to the rail and look down without ever even glancing at him. "Go ahead. Talk." I say coldly, waiting for him to speak. He lets out a sigh and turns back towards the rail while standing so close to me I can feel his body heat in the cool air.

"Who is the one you have back home?" he asks me quietly. "I could ask the same of you." I reply back icily. "But, I asked first." He recoils. "There wasn't anyone. It was you." I say bluntly, just getting to my point. He inhales sharply and I can tell that wasn't the answer he has expecting.

"Well,the key word is, was." I continue on "Not anymore, due to the fact that you have your own little miss priss waiting for you to come home, and probably fawned all over her television when you announced it to the whole nation."

I say rudely. "What was this to you? Some kind of game? A sick joke where you make your best friend fall for you only to stomp all over her for some extra attention?" I can feel myself getting more heated as I get closer into his space. "What was that in the hall? 'Oh, you're so amazing and beautiful' "I attempt to mock him in his voice.

"Did that make you feel like a man?" I question him as I glare right into his eyes, searching for something I know that I won't find.

"Well, answer me!" I almost yell at him and I can begin to feel the tears pooling up again. Suddenly, he does the last thing I ever expected him to do. He grabs the back of my neck, and smashes his lips against mine.

I am shocked, to say the least, but he doesn't move, just waits for me to respond. I pull away from him slightly, knowing that I probably have a very confused expression on my face at this moment.

"Um, what was that?" I say breathlessly, feeling the blush rise up to my cheeks. He looks at me with something I haven't seen in his eyes yet.

"You. It's always been you. You were the one I was talking about. I couldn't ever be with someone else. Don't you see? "He says quietly, searching my face for an answer.

I take a minute to process what he said, and then I decide to answer on my own. I grab his face with my hands and pull his lips back to mine feeling every bit of emotion and anger I felt earlier melt away. He moves his lips against mine ever so slowly that makes me feel like I'm in a dream. I've never kissed anyone before, but now I realize what I was missing.

His hands make their way down to my waist and he wraps his arms around me, pulling me tightly against him. Finally, I begin to run out of air and pull away ever so slightly.

"So, I take it you feel the same way?" he asks jokingly as he rests his forehead on mine. "Yeah, I guess I do" I say with a smile as he kisses me one last time before releasing me.

We stay up on the balcony for a few more minutes, just staying close to each other, until we decide it's time to go to bed. Cato gives me a piggy back ride down the stairs and walks both of us into my room without even asking.

We get into bed and he wraps me up into his arms, kissing me a few more time before drifting off to sleep. "Well, This just made things a lot more complicated." I think before dozing off

**There you have it folks. The moment you've all been waiting for...the kiss. Now, I can get down to business and start writing the games! Yay! Anywho, shout-out to RuthlessWriter, LittleWinter1011, and the Guest from June 6th! Also, thanks to RuthlessWriter for the story follow and favorite and also for your messages! Also, imshining, welcome! I greatly appreciate all of ya'll reviews and critiques! Love ya'll!**


	15. Chapter 14

**Ok, Chapter 14! Look for the shout-outs at the bottom! Hope ya'll enjoys and please review! DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games**

I sleep soundly the almost the whole night, but I'm woken up by Cato practically squeezing the life out of me. I do my best to turn to face him and try to wake him up. "Cato, wake up. Cato." I say as I hold his face gently.

"Hm? What is it?" he says with urgency as he wakes up. "Nothing, you were just squeezing the oxygen out of me." I say sarcastically.

"Oh, sorry…I guess I had a bad dream." I says quietly as he avoids my gaze. "Do you want to talk about it?" I ask gently while searching his face for signs of pain.

He suddenly looks at me with his piercing blue eyes "I don't want to lose you." He says with hurt in his eyes. I don't know what to say.

I can't say that he won't because only one of us can come out alive. It's impossible. The game makers won't change the rules for anything.

I look at him sadly, and know that he's thinking the same thing. I want to reassure him, that I'll be with him until the last possible moment.

He looks down at me, still saddened and without saying a word, kisses me. It's short, simple and sweet.

He must have done it to reassure himself, but I know it didn't work. "Now, you call that a kiss?" I say jokingly, trying to break some of the tension.

I look up at him, urging him on and thankfully, he makes his move again.

He shifts so that he's lying partially on top of me, pinning me down as he kisses me harder, fiercer, and much longer. He leaves my lips, much to my discontent, however, I am quickly pleased again as he begins peppering my face with sweet kisses.

Then, he finds his way to the skin below my ear and I am surprised by the moan that comes from me when he presses his lips firmly there sucking the skin slightly.

I feel him smile against my neck and know that he is growing in his confidence. However, I don't want to go too far, so I pull him back to my lips and kiss him for all it's worth, knowing that this will be our last time together without cameras or other tributes around.

He pulls away slightly, enough for me to speak, but I lock eyes with him before I do. "I will be with you, no matter what, until it's time. Ok?" I tell him, hinting at the fact that I'm not planning on coming out of the arena.

He catches it though "What do you mean? I'm going to do everything in my power to get you out alive." He says sternly "But, Cato I-"I begin to speak but am cut off by one more fierce kiss. "Everything. Understand?" he says when he pulls away.

I know that it's best not to argue with him right now, knowing he'll only get more stubborn. "Ok." I sigh as I turn back over, telling him I want to go back to sleep. He gets my drift and pulls me back up to his chest, wrapping his arms around me before dozing back off.

When I wake up, the sun is barely shining through the window, but I know it's time. I pull myself out of Cato's grip and walk to the bathroom, glancing back at his sleeping form for a brief moment. I sigh, knowing that this is going to be hard, but also kind of exciting.

I strip down and step into the shower, washing my hair and scrubbing my body. I take my time because this is going to be my last shower, and I want to enjoy it.

When I feel like I'm ready, I towel off and walk back to my room. I pull on some loose black pants and a shirt, pulling my hair up in a ponytail. Nadab will meet with me before the launch and dress me in my arena clothes and fix my hair.

I gently rouse Cato, telling him he needs to go get ready. He obliges, but not without a fight. I have to pull every last blanket off of him before he'll finally get up.

He stand up to leave, but before he does, he pulls me close to him, holding both sides of my face and kisses me with as much strength he can muster and I kiss him back just as fervently. This will be our last kiss for a while.

We've decided to not reveal our relationship until we get to the final 6. It might prove as a weakness to the other tributes.

He pulls away, hugs me tightly then heads out the door turning back for just a second. "See you soon" he says with a smirk and I know that he's excited about what's to come.

I shake my head and smile at his giddiness as I walk down the hall to grab a little bit to eat before Enorbia and Brutus come to escort us to the hovercraft that will take us to the launch rooms below the arena.

I eat a roll and some fruit, and Cato comes out just in time to grab a few pieces of bacon before we head down. We ride the elevator to the ground floor, and then we take a small corridor to a hangar that holds the hovercraft.

We are some of the first ones here. Brutus and Enorbia give us some last bits of advice, and then we're allowed to board the hovercraft where a woman directs us to our seats.

I am seated next to the boy from District 4 and Fire Girl. I look around and see that Cato is seated next to the small girl from District 11 and the girl from District 5.

Another woman comes and injects a tracker into our right forearms before the lights go dim. I quickly put on a smirk of excitement as the others around me shudder in fear.

The hovercraft lurches forward as he take off. We ride for what seems to be 45 minutes before we land in a much smaller hangar.

We are quickly filed off and taken our separate ways. Cato catches my eye and mouths 'good luck'. I quickly reply 'you too' before I lose sight of him.

I am ushered into a room where Nadab waits for me. He hugs me, then begins dressing me in my arena clothes. They are lightweight cargo pants, a light t-shirt, and a jacket to go over. I also have on a pair of sturdy boots.

Nadab begins to pull up my hair when he mumbles "Well, what do we have here?" he asks as he pulls back the hair from around my ear.

"What?" I question as I look in the mirror. "Oh crap." I mutter as I see the red and faintly purple mark right below my ear. I mentally curse Cato, but am also slightly amused.

"I bet I can guess who caused this" Nadab says with a smirk as he goes back to finishing my hair, pulling a few pieces out, to disguise the mark. I say nothing in response, I just sit and wait patiently for him to finish.

As soon as he does, a robotic voice sounds "60 seconds to launch" I feel slight butterflies lurch in my stomach from excitement. I stand up; embrace Nadab briefly thanking him for all that he's done. I then walk and stand inside of the clear tube in the center of the room.

Nadab taps the bottom of his chin, telling me to look up and stand tall. I do so, and the tube lurches up. I see nothing but darkness for 30 seconds, and then I am able to see the light of day. I feel the wind lift a few hairs off of my face as I observe the arena.

It is woodlands. There's a large lake to the left of me, the forest is directly in front and the cornucopia is directly in the middle of all of the tributes.

I look around and see Cato 6 tributes to my left, Marvel 3 to my right, Glimmer directly across from me, and next to her is Fire Girl. I smile cockily as I see her look like a stunned deer. I observe the cornucopia and all it has to offer.

There are various backpacks and sleeping bags scattered around the front, but inside there are weapons galore. I catch a glimpse of a beautiful set of knives arranged on a belt next to a wall of spears and swords. "That's mine" I say to myself.

Suddenly, we hear a speaker crackle and the voice of Claudius Templesmith booms out. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 74th Annual Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" he yells with enthusiasm as the timer above the cornucopia begins counting down.

60 seconds. That's all I have to wait before I can finally do what I've been trained for. "This is it" I tell myself s the adrenaline surges in my veins as the timer reaches 30 seconds.

I look and Cato and he smirks at me as he gets in a stance so that he can run quickly for the weapons.

I smirk back and do the same, knowing that I'll have to kill a few with just my hands before I get a weapon though. "That'll be no problem at all" I tell myself confidently.

The clock reaches 10 seconds and I tense my legs up, ready to bolt. 9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…The buzzer blares and we're off. It's complete chaos, but I only have my sights set in one thing. Anyone who gets in my way will simply die.

**There you have it! Thanks for reading and again, please review! It means so much to hear ya'lls feedback! Now, the shout-outs!**

**Thanks to charliesunshine and the guest from June 18th! Ya'll's reviews were so sweet! Also, thanks charliesunshine for adding me to your favorite stories and Bigdoghanna for following! Feel free to PM me with any comments of ideas! Love ya'll!**


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15! This one was really fun to write, but please tell me if ya'll think the rating needs to be booted up at all. Enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Hunger Games**

I quickly bolt towards the center of the cornucopia just in time to see Cato effortlessly snap the neck of a young female tribute. I make my way into the back of the cornucopia where all of the weapons lie.

Suddenly, a girl jumps me from behind, tackling me to the ground. But, luckily, I am able to grab a knife before I go down. It doesn't take me long to have her pinned beneath me. "Bad move darling" I sneer while she shakes and thrashes trying to escape.

I smoothly slice my knife across the base of her throat resulting in a small spurt of her warm, sticky blood to cover my face.

I stand up off of her as she lies dying and gather a spear and the rest of the knives as I fasten the belt around my waist. I leave the other supplies for now, knowing that we'll come back to them after we finish weeding out the weak tributes.

I run out of the cornucopia ready for my next kill. I set my sights on a girl about my height and quickly tackle her to the ground. She fights back and even succeeds in rolling me under her, but only for a brief moment.

I regain control and pin her down by straddling her stomach and pinning either shoulder with my knees and her hands with my feet.

I know that I am pressed for time, but also know that I need to put on a good show in order to secure more sponsors. I decide to simply cut out her tongue, and then slit her wrists after breaking her legs leaving her paralyzed and bleeding out on the ground.

When I am finished, I spot Fire Girl attempting to grab a backpack away from a boy that is slightly larger than her. I quickly send one of my knives into his back, causing him to spit blood on the girl as he falls directly in front of her.

She is momentarily stunned, but quickly bolts towards the forest. I throw one of my larger knives at her head, but to my dismay, she lifts her backpack up just in time and my knife sticks into it.

"Crap" I mutter as she escapes into the woods, with one of my knives. I turn around and observe the scene in front of me.

At least 7 tributes lie dead on the plush green grass. I look and see Glimmer finishing off a girl she pinned beneath her and watch as Marvel stabs a spear right through the torso of another boy.

Cato is over by the back of the cornucopia fighting a boy that seems to be slightly taller than me, but he quickly finishes him off and I watch as the head of a small boy rolls onto the ground after Cato slices it off in one clean swipe with his sword. The foolish boy was hiding out behind the crates at the back of the cornucopia.

The only ones still here are Cato, Glimmer, Marvel, the girl from District 4, and Peeta. Cato makes his way over to him and I follow behind.

"Remind me again why I'm not going to kill you right here." Cato says gruffly to Peeta.

"Because I'll lead you to Katniss. That's why." Peeta says bluntly. All Cato does is nod. "Alright, he's with us" He tells me and the others.

The girl from 4, I think her name is Ellie, mumbles something under her breath that sounds like disapproval. Cato quickly steps towards her and towers over her with intimidation "Is there a problem here, Ellie?" Cato practically spits her name

She glares up at him "No, none at all" she says through gritted teeth as she turns on her heel and walks away, going to gather supplies. She seems quite upset about the fact that her partner was killed. I briefly remember the massive boy from District 11 slashing him all over his chest with a sickle.

"That's what I thought" Cato yells after her with confidence. Cato then turns to me "How many?" he asks and I know he means kills for me. "3…and almost Fire Girl." I say angrily. "What about you?" I ask him "3" he says plainly, as if it's no big deal at all.

"Glimmer!" Cato calls. She hurriedly scurries to his side. "Yes Cato?" she asks sweetly, making me want to gag for the umpteenth time since I've met her.

"Count the bodies before they're taken away. We need to know who we're still up against. And Peeta, help her." He gives the orders like he's been doing it his whole life.

"Marvel, Can you gather the remaining weapons and set them up where they can be easily accessed?" he asks him "You got it chief" Marvel says jokingly with a small salute.

"Clove, could you help me with moving the supplies to the back of the cornucopia?" He asks and I nod and follow him. We gather as much as we can hold in our arms and carry it to the back of the horn. "Here, I'll get the rest. You organize and stack." He says demandingly. "Yes sir" mutter under my breath as he walks out.

I organize the supplies into the different categories and add the ones Cato brings in. I then set out to retrieve my knife that I threw into the boy's back. I step on his back, grip the handle firmly, and pull out the long blade followed by a suction sound.

I walk back over to Cato and Marvel who are sitting down, resting while they wait for the final tally of the kills. Glimmer come over to us and gleefully informs us of 11 kills.

"Who?" Cato asks Peeta surprisingly calm. "The girl from 3, boy from 4, boy from 5, both from 6, both from 7, boy from 8, both from 9 and the girl from 10." He quickly lists off.

"Not bad" Cato says with approval. "Well, what now?" I ask him. "We wait till dark. There's going to be at least one idiot lighting a fire in order to keep warm. We wait for the light from it, and then hunt." He says with a smirk.

"Glimmer, can you gather food from the supplies for dinner?" he asks the blonde twirling her hair around her finger. "Sure!" she replies giddily as she skips over to the food pile.

You wouldn't know it by looking at her, but she did actually kill 2 people today. And she did it quite effectively if I must say so. But, I still don't like her.

Marvel and Peeta set out to collect fire wood and Ellie's still pouting by the lake leaving me and Cato sitting alone.

"You did well today." He tells me with a small smile. "Did you think I wouldn't?" I tease him. "No, I just saw you killing. It was pretty good." He says with a smirk.

"Well, thanks. You didn't do so bad yourself. I especially loved how you beheaded that puny runt." I tell him, with a smile and he laughs at my added comment. We then hear a low rumbling sound and look up to see a hover craft right above us.

A claw reaches down and grabs a body, pulls it up and repeats the process until all of the dead are cleared. "Thank goodness. It was starting to stink" I say with relief. I may be able to kill without feeling a thing, but the smell of rotting flesh and blood is a completely different story.

Marvel and Peeta come back soon and set up, and start a good sized fire as Glimmer comes out with the food. I grab a packet of meat, rip it open with my teeth, and then put the pieces onto a stick to cook over the fire.

Peeta heads to the lake with a pot and fills it with water to cook some rice. He also manages to drag Ellie back to eat something. She eats reluctantly, but doesn't say anything to anyone. Glimmer passes out some dried fruit and we all dig in.

"Ok, Marvel, you have the first watch. Everyone else, get some rest. We'll be moving all night." Cato announces when we finish eating.

We all grab tents, but we are one short leaving Cato and I to share one. There are only 4 sleeping bags and 6 of us and I know that we'll be sharing that too.

We climb into our tents and get settled. Cato pulls his shirt off, and I remove my jacket and boots then slide into the sleeping bag.

Cato follows after me and instantly wraps his arms around me. "You know, there's no cameras in here." He mumbles into my ear as he begins kissing down my neck.

"Yes, the fact did occur to me." I reply, turning to face him. He wastes no time at all leaning in to kiss me fiercely.

I move my lips against his with just as much fervor as his hands begin to explore my waist and hips. My hands roam over his shoulder, up to his neck and then to his hair.

I pull away after a few minutes, much to his dismay. "Hey, you're the one who said to rest." I tell him as I roll back over with a smirk.

He goes right back to kissing my neck and part of my exposed shoulder "That was for the others." He pouts.

"Well, I'm tired" I yawn, closing my eyes and shifting slightly. "And if you won't let me sleep, I guess I'll just have to go sleep outside." I threaten, half-jokingly, half serious.

"No, I'm sorry. Let's sleep." Cato says instantly as he pulls me tightly up against him and wraps his arms around my waist.

"Thank you, your patience might be rewarded later on." I tease as I drift off to sleep.

**Thanks for reading and please review! Also, the more the reviews, the sooner the update! ;) Love ya'll and have a great week!**


	17. Chapter 16

**Ok, I decided to update because you guys are so amazing! I got 4 reviews for the last chapter and they all made me smile! Well, I put kind of a pun in here so see if you can find it and let me know! :) Also, shout outs are below! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games**

While we're still asleep, Marvel has Glimmer take the watch so that he can sleep. She wakes us all up as soon as it gets dark so that we can get ready to go.

Cato and I dress quickly and I fasten my belt of knives around my waist as he places his sheathed sword on the waistband of his pants.

We all gather around the fire, waiting for the anthem and count of the dead to appear so that we can get a move on. "So, Cato" Marvel begins while the others are preoccupied with weaponing up.

"It seemed like you were doing a little more than resting in your tent. Hm, Clove?" he finishes as he points to the red mark on my neck.

"No, actually that was a training injury from a few days ago. It's just always been covered up with makeup until now." I lie, trying to keep Cato and me a secret until we decide it's a good time to reveal seeing as the only other people that know are our mentors, escort and my stylist.

"Mhm" Marvel mumbles, still not convinced. I give up on it, knowing that he won't tell the others anything because he's afraid of what Cato will do to him.

The anthem abruptly blares and the capitol logo brightens up the sky. The faces of the fallen tributes accompanied by their district number appear after.

Our count was dead on. The faces of 11 tributes fill the sky one after another for a brief second before vanishing forever.

I momentarily think of the families of the now dead. I think of how they had to watch their, daughter, sister, friend or lover die at the hands of what they think is a bloodthirsty animal in a human's body.

The thought of them makes me hate them even more and I don't regret anything I did this morning. Suddenly, Peeta stands up "Do you guys smell that?" he says hurriedly.

"Smell what?" Glimmer asks sniffing with her perfectly stupid nose. "Entertainment" Cato says with a deadly smirk as he points to the tree of the forest where I can just barely make out the flickering of a fire.

We quickly gather up the rest of the weapons and light a few torches then head towards the forest. Cato takes the lead, slashing through the underbrush with his sword. I follow directly behind trying to focus on anything other than the flexing of his biceps visible even through his jacket.

We stop suddenly and Cato turns to Glimmer, Ellie and Peeta. "You three are way too loud." He whispers loudly.

"Head to the left for about 200 yards, then curve around and see if this idiot will scare and run right into Marvel, Clove and I." He says as he continues hacking away at the thorns.

I watch as the three roll their eyes, but do as they're told and head to the left until they're not visible through all the vines and leaves.

We continue to move much quieter until we see the faint light of a fire. Cato slashes through the last bit of vine to bring us into a small clearing.

The sound of the slicing wakes up the girl from District 8 who was sleeping next to her small fire. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Cato asks tauntingly.

The girl stands up quickly and attempts to run, but Marvel was able to wrap around without her noticing and she runs right into him.

He grabs her, holding her still as she begins to scream. "Shut up. You'll wake the others." I spit out at her but she continues her noise. Peeta, Glimmer and Ellie barge in, no doubt because they heard her scream.

The girl looks around, she realizes that it's hopeless, but still continues to scream. "Clove" Cato begins "Cut out her tongue." He orders me. "With pleasure" I sneer as I approach her with one of my smallest knives.

She struggles in Marvels grip, but is unable to break loose. "Peeta, hold her head still and open her mouth." I order him and he quickly obeys. "Now, now, It'll only hurt a lot" I tease her as I begin to slice at the back of her tongue.

She tries to scream, but I quickly silence her with a blow to the throat. She then begins to cry, either from the pain, hopelessness, or both.

"Wait" Cato begins as I'm halfway through her tongue "Ellie, give me that rope you brought with." He orders the girl who obliges and places a coil of rope onto his hand

Cato kneels in front of the girl and begins to tie the rope around her ankles. "Marvel, Peeta, hoist her up." He orders while pointing to a branch above us. "Here" He says to me as he hands me the rope attached to her feet.

I smirk at his idea, and allow him to hoist me up so that I'm able to tie the rope around the tree branch. "Make sure it's nice and tight!" Glimmer yells, seemingly enjoying this.

For once, I listen to her and tug the rope until the poor girl is 4 feet off the ground.

Cato gently lets me down "Put on a good show" he whispers with a devilish grin. I smirk back and saunter over to the girl who is already beginning to choke on her own blood. "Now, let's begin, shall we?" I murmur closely to her ear. "Oh, how about here?" I say as I hold up her hand.

I pull one of my knives from my belt and begin carving small, intricate patterns into her hand and wrist. I repeat the process on the other side then decide on what I'm going to do her. "Glimmer, would you mind getting rid of this shirt?" I ask the ditsy blonde twirling her hair and watch Cato instead of me.

"Oh, sure!" she says as I hand her a knife and she cuts the shirt off the girl, leaving her upper half exposed, minus her sports bra.

Marvel snickers like the teenage boy he is, but Peeta and Cato remain focused.

I then continue carving up her arms, down her stomach, up her back, then across her chest, all while she whimpers in pain. When I am finished, my hands and arms are covered in her blood, but no where near as much as she is.

"What do you say Cato? Leave her here strung up until she bleeds out? I guarantee it won't be long." I say as I wink at the girl moaning in pain.

"Sure, why not. Let's go. We'll come back for the rope later" he says as he begins heading back to the cornucopia.

I holster my knives back on my belt and follow right behind. I attempt to stifle the yawn that comes out of my mouth, but I'm unsuccessful. We were out for about 6 hours, making it around 2 o'clock in the morning. She should be dead by three.

We have a long walk ahead of us though, and after an hour, we still haven't heard a canon. "Why is it taking so long?" I mutter, slightly frustrated.

"I don't know, but it's time now. Peeta, go finish her off." He tells the blonde boy, aware that he's still looking nauseated from my little show earlier.

However, he's smart enough to not argue with Cato and heads off back to where the girl is, taking a torch from Glimmer and walking through the brush. "Aren't you worried he'll flee?" I ask him quietly as we stop allowing the others to pass us.

"More or less. But think of this as a test. If he comes back, his death will be quick, but if not, he'll be much worse than that girl." He mumbles closely to me.

I look in his eyes, know what he wants right now, but know that this is definitely not the place. There are way too many cameras. "Remember, patience." I whisper only loud enough for him to hear. He sighs, but obliges and we continue to walk when we hear a canon. "Well, he did it." I say with slight surprise in my voice.

We arrive back to the camp to find that everyone has already gone asleep. Leaving Cato and I to keep watch. Even after Peeta arrives back, there's only one sleeping bag and three of us. I'm definitely not crawling into one with Peeta, so I decide staying up for a few more hours won't hurt.

Cato groans at the situation, with his mind still on other things. "Patience" I smirk at him from across the fire. We sit and listen to the bugs chirp until we're sure it's been at least 2 hours.

I go and wake up Ellie, because she hasn't had a watch rotation yet.

Then I climb into the tent she was in as Cato practically jumps in after me. "Easy boy, not too much. Got it?" I tell him firmly. He simply nods his head and strips his jacket and shirt off.

I follow suit, debating whether or not to remove my own shirt. I decide it can't hurt much. "It's pitch black in here after all" I tell myself.

I kick off my shoes and climb into the sleeping bag, waiting for Cato to take his own shoes off. He climbs in and wraps his arms around me.

I look up at him and smile, knowing he's been patient very long and I'm very grateful he respects me enough to give me that.

"You know, you looked really hot slicing that girl up." He murmurs against my face "You're sick." I say as I jokingly hit his chest. "Yep" he says plainly before capturing my lips with his.

It doesn't take long for me to respond and I grunt slightly as he rolls on top of me, holding himself up with his forearms so as not to crush me. I hold his face in my hands and kiss his as fiercely as I can, but due to my lack of sleep, I can't keep up with him for long.

"You know-as much- as I enjoy- this-I'm pretty tired." I mumble against his mouth between kisses. He simply nods, but continues kissing me for few more seconds before rolling off of me onto his side.

I face away from him and snuggle up against his chest as he begins kissing my neck right behind my ear. "It seems you've discovered my weakness." I mumble as he begins sucking on the delicate skin. "Mmmhmm" he says and I feel his smirk on my neck.

"Well, by all means, continue. But I'm going to sleep." I say as I close my eyes, already feeling sleep begin to overtake me. I feel Cato's large arm wrap around my waist as his other extends out above my head.

I reach up and use it as a pillow, as he finally ceases in his actions, due to his own tiredness. I drift off to sleep listening to Cato's constant steady breathing and the gentle hum of the crickets.

**Hope you liked it! Please review, they mean the world to me!**

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	18. Chapter 17

_**Ok, this is just filler chapter...sorry! I haven't gotten around to actually plotting out everything that happens and who dies when...I know, lazy me. Anyway, I hope ya'll like it! Shout-outs below! Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games**_

Glimmer comes barging into our tent in the middle of the night to wake me up for the watch. "Clove, It's you turn to-"she stops short as she sees Cato holding me while sound asleep. She gives me a grimace and storms out, heading into the tent occupied by Marvel.

I hear a little verbal scuffling, and protesting on Marvel's part, but it settles down after a minute or two. I groan and gently remove Cato's arm from my waist without waking him, which isn't that hard to do considering he sleeps like a rock.

I quietly put my clothes, boots, and knife belt back on, and then head out into the brisk night air. I feel the wind on my face and the chill causes goose bumps to rise up on my arms, even through the sleeves of my jacket.

I quickly make my way over to the dying fire to attempt to warm up, but realize I'll need to find more fire wood in order to do so. I grab a short sword and a machete just in case, and make my way through the brush to find wood.

I don't have to walk long before I find a large dead tree lying in the middle of my path. I pull out the machete and begin hacking off pieces of it. Only after I have two arms full of wood, do I realize that I'm making a lot of noise.

I stop and listen for any sign if being watched or pursued, but shrug it off after a minute of silence. I begin walking back, but about halfway back, I hear something. I drop the logs; grab my sword in my right hand and two knives in my left.

I wait and listen, finding cover behind a patch of briars when I see him walk out from behind a tree. It's the massive boy from District 11. I gasp in surprise, knowing if he sees me, I'll only have a small chance to beat him due to his sheer size.

I decide it's best to remain quiet and wait for him to wander off and hope he doesn't take any of my wood. I'm lucky, because he does walk off in the opposite direction of our camp quite quickly. But just to make sure, I wait patiently for 10 minutes before heading back on my way.

I arrive back and pile the wood onto the almost dead fire, blowing to revive it. It flickers back to life and I take a seat on a crate and warm myself up. I realize it probably wasn't the best idea to leave the camp unattended, and decide to not tell anyone about it.

I wait till the end of my shift, or what I think was 2 hours, and go off to wake Peeta. When he's situated, I climb back into the warm tent away from the freezing air.

I strip off my jacket and boots, and remove my t-shirt again and wiggle my way back into Cato's warmth, trying to get the feeling back into my fingers and toes. I fall asleep quickly and sleep soundly until Cato's woken up to take the last watch.

I grumble in protest, because my heat source is leaving. But, he tucks the sleeping bag around me and kisses my forehead before heading out. I'm nice and warm and toasty, so I get back to sleep in no time.

Cato wakes me up a little after the sun rises, so it must be around 7:30. I dress and go out to the fire to eat breakfast. I notice that neither Glimmer nor Marvel aren't up yet, so I head to their tent to rouse them.

I'm both surprised and not surprised by what I see. Marvel is lying on his back with his arm around Glimmer who is sprawled out on top of him. "And you were giving me grief." I mumble.

I give marvel a sharp kick to the side and he jumps awake, jostling Glimmer in the process. "Well, well. What do we have here?" I taunt them jokingly. "It's nothing" Glimmer says hurriedly as she gets off of him, straightens her hair and clothing and steps out.

"Well?" I ask a confused looking Marvel. "Hey, all I'm saying is that it's not what it looks like." He says defensively. "Mmhmm." I mumble in disbelief and I leave him to dress, noticing he had next to nothing on.

I walk back to the fire and begin grabbing some dried fruit out of a bag to eat for myself. We sit around the fire, eating quietly. "So, today, we don't have much to do. I was thinking, we all smell pretty bad now, so we'll take bathing shifts in the lake." Cato begins.

"I think I saw some bars of soap around here somewhere. But, we should wash our clothes as well. So, Ladies, you go first." He says as he gestures to Ellie, Glimmer and I.

I groan at the fact of having to strip down naked in front of Glimmer of all people, but I do smell pretty bad. I'm surprised Cato has even stepped near me.

We finish up eating and walk towards the lake. "No peeking." I whisper teasingly to Cato as I pass him. "No promises!" he yells behind me, but I know he has enough respect for us to make sure that not only him, but Marvel and Peeta stay out of the line of vision.

We reach the lake with our bars of soap in hand, and I find a large rock that I'll be able to spread my clothes out on to dry. Ready to get this over with, I strip off all of my clothes, underwear, and socks and then toss them onto the bank of the lake.

I wade into the slightly brisk water up to my neck and begin scrubbing my clothes with the soap. I rinse them off, then walk back out and lay them flat on the rock. I then go back into the water to wash myself.

I go under water and just hold my breath and sit on the bottom, enjoying the feeling of peacefulness until my lungs are screaming for oxygen. I come up, and begin scrubbing all of the dirt and sweat off of my body, loving being clean again.

I go under the water briefly to get my hair wet again so that I can wash it with the soap. I work my hair into a lather and scrub until I feel it's clean, then I rinse it all out. I realize that my clothes won't be dry for quite a few minutes, and I glance over to see that Glimmer and Ellie are in the same situation.

I sigh and float onto my back, knowing that all of my modesty is gone anyway. I swim around, even catching a few fish and banging their heads on rocks to kill them and toss them onto the bank.

After what feels like an hour, I know my clothes have to be dry, so I walk out of the water, feeling fully exposed, knowing that all of the capitol is looking at my naked, wet body right now.

I quickly pull on my under wear, feeling much better with even the small articles of clothing on my body. I follow with the rest of my clothes, leaving my jacket off because it's really starting to warm up. I sit on the rock and begin lacing my boots up.

I look up and see that Ellie is doing the same as me, but Glimmer is just now getting out of the water. She's sashaying her hips back and forth as she walks, knowing all eyes are on her. I roll my eyes and mumble "Hey, whatever floats your goat." to myself.

I grab my jacket and soap the walk back to the camp. I hand Cato my bar and he heads off to the water pulling his shirt over his head "No peeking" he mimics me from earlier. "Hey! No promises! I yell after him with a smirk. Marvel and Peeta follow soon after already stripping off their jackets and shirts.

I sit on the same crate as last night and sit in silence with Glimmer and Ellie. It's then that I realize that I left my fish on the bank. "Crap" I mutte, knowing that I need to get them gutted fast otherwise they'll start to rot.

I stand up and head to the lake without saying a word. I just receive a questioning stare from Glimmer. When I get close enough, I yell to Cato. "Cato! I need to get those fish on the bank. They'll rot before you get done. All you guys get in the water, I'm coming!"

I warn and hear a few splashes and feel that the coast is clear. I cautiously make my way up to the bank and am relieved to see they're all in the water. "Hey! I told you no peeking!" Cato yells jokingly. I glance up to see him barely waist deep in the blue water.

"Do you mind going a little deeper?" I tell him annoyed, know that he's doing this to me on purpose. "Why? Can't stand the view?" he teases me. I look at him to see the glistening water dripping off of his tanned, taunt muscles, but quickly snap out of my thoughts when I see his knowing smirk.

I roll my eyes as he laughs and jumps underwater swimming to the far bank. I quickly gather the fish and head back to the camp. I gut the fish quickly and put it onto sticks to roast over the fire. I work on the food until the guys come back.

Then I serve up the fish, putting it onto smaller sticks to eat off of. We eat slowly, all feeling much better from out baths. Then we wait around, saying hardly anything to each other, but joking about what the other tributes have said before being killed.

"We won't hunt until dusk. I'm taking a nap. Ellie, you keep watch." Cato says as he heads to his tent and I follow behind. I take off my clean jacket and climb onto the sleeping bag in my shirt and pants.

Cato strips off his upper half, and lies down next to me. We don't climb into the bag because it's so hot outside. I roll over and get situated, using my jacket as a pillow.

Cato scoots up close to me and rests his hand on my hip. "I have no privacy left…at all." I mumble before closing my eyes. I hear him laugh slightly, but he is quiet after and goes right to sleep.

**Charliesunshine- You are amazing! Thanks for your constant reviews! And as for the review, If you mean I might have some serial killer in me...I promise I don't! Haha, I guess writing deaths is easy for me or something...weird...anyway, Thanks again!**

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